THE  ORIENTAL  CHRIST 


p.  C.  lMOZOOMDAR 


BOSTON 

GEO.    H.    ELLIS,    141    FRANKLIN    STREET 

1883 


COPYRIGHT, 

BY  GEORGE  K.   ELLIS, 

1883. 


30 -i 


itsl^uh  CIjHitb^r  Bm, 


THE    BELOVED    COMPANION    OF     MY   EARLY    BOYHOOD,   THE 

GUIDE   OF   MY   YOUTH,   THE  FRIEND   AND   LEADER   OF 

MY   MANHOOD,   TO   WHOM   MY   SOUL   HAS   CLUNG 

AMID   MANY   TRANSITIONS   AND   TRIALS, 


je  fbllobing  pages  are  inscnhtti, 


WITH  THE  SERVICE  OF  SIMPLE  AFFECTION,  AND  FAITHFUL   LOYALTY. 


CONTENTS 

Preface, 7 

Introduction, 15 

1.    The  Bathing  Christ, 47 

II.    The  Fasting  Christ, 57 

III.  The  Praying  Christ, 74 

IV.  The  Teaching  Christ, 86 

V.    The  Rebuking  Christ, 98 

VI.    The  Weeping  Christ, iii 

VII.    The  Pilgriming  Christ, 126 

VIII.    The  Trusting  Christ, 137 

IX.     The  Healing  Christ, 146 

X.    The  Feasting  Christ, 155 

XI.    The  Parting  Christ, 170 

XII.    The  Dying  Christ, 181 

XIII.    The  Reigning  Christ, 188 


PREFACE 

T  HAVE  often  asked  myself  what  right  I  have  to 
handle  the  life  of  Christ.  The  answer  has  been 
uniform.  My  spirit  craves  to  utter  itself  on  that 
endless  theme.  I  anticipate  the  disapproval  of 
authoritative  ecclesiastics.  I  foresee  the  surprise 
of  one-sided  theists.  I  have  a  clear  prevision  of 
the  sarcasm  and  reproach  of  clear-headed  combative 
scholars.  But  my  line  of  speculation  scarcely  coin- 
cides with  theirs.  Mine  are  but  human  prayerful 
endeavors  to  realize  the  character  and  spirit  of  the 
Son  of  God.  Mine  are  but  attempts  to  accept, 
assimilate,  and  embody  ideal  humanity.  The  Bible 
has  been  my  guide ;  and  devout  thinkers,  both  living 
and  dead,  have  been  my  companions.  I  pretend  not 
to  criticise,  far  less  to  teach !  In  my  long  wander- 
ings and  solitudes,  in  my  dark  isolations  and  seasons 
of  spiritual  exile,  I  have  labored  to  seek,  and  rejoiced 
to  find,  pure,  simple,  glorious  manhood  in  the  Son  of 


8  THE   ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

Man.  And  I  feel  constrained  to  speak  on  the  sub- 
ject to  the  spirit  of  the  living,  and  the  dead,  and  the 
unborn.  If  I  stand  before  the  tribunal  of  the  times, 
it  is  not  as  a  man  assuming  superiority,  teachership, 
or  wisdom  over  any,  but  simply  as  one  uttering 
aloud  his  own  thoughts. 

Nearly  twenty  years  ago,  my  troubles,  studies, 
and  circumstances  forced  upon  me  the  question  of 
personal  relationship  to  Christ.  Though  for  a  short 
time  taught  in  a  government  college  in  Calcutta, 
where  no  moral  or  religious  instruction  is  ever 
given,  and  where,  on  the  contrary,  a  good  deal  of  the 
opposite  influence  is  directly  and  indirectly  imbibed, 
I  was  early  awakened  to  a  sense  of  deep  inner  un- 
worthiness.  Placed  in  youth  by  the  side  of  a  very 
pure,  and  powerful  character,  whose  external  condi- 
tions were  similar  to  my  own,  I  was  helped  to  feel 
—  in  the  freshness  of  my  susceptibilities,  by  the  law 
of  contrast  —  that  I  was  painfully  imperfect,  and 
needed  very  much  the  grace  of  a  saving  God.  In 
the  Brahmo  Somaj,  this  consciousness  of  imperfec- 
tion soon  developed  into  a  strong  sense  of  sin.  The 
doctrine  of   original   corruption   never   preoccupied 


PREFACE  9 

my  boyhood  or  youth,  the  fear  of  eternal  punishment 
never  biassed  my  thought  or  aspiration.  I  was 
never  taught  to  feel  any  undue  leaning  toward  the 
Christian  Scriptures,  or  the  Christian  religion.  Mine 
was  a  strong  unforced  consciousness  of  natural 
and  acquired  unworthiness.  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's 
early  melancholy  had,  perhaps,  an  effect  on  me. 
No  doubt,  his  severe  morality  affected  and  partly 
moulded  my  character.  The  influence  of  Christian 
doctrines  might  perhaps  be  diffused  in  the  moral 
atmosphere  of  the  land  of  my  birth.  Definite  recol- 
lection, or  conscious  analysis  does  not  give  me  any 
clue  into  how  or  why  it  was.  But  this  I  do  very 
clearly  remember  that  as  the  sense  of  sin  grew 
on  me,  and  with  it  a  deep  miserable  restlessness,, 
a  necessity  of  reconciliation  between  aspiration  and. 
practice,  I  was  mysteriously  led  to  feel  a  personall 
affinity  to  the  spirit  of  Christ.  The  whole  subject 
of  the  life  and  death  of  Christ  had  for  me  a  marvel- 
lous sweetness  and  fascination.  I  repeat,  I  can 
never  account  for  this.  Untaught  by  any  one,  not 
sympathized  with  even  by  the  very  best  of  my 
friends,  often  discouraged  and  ridiculed,  I  persisted 


lO  THE   ORIENTAL   CHRIST 

in  according  to  Christ  a  tenderness  of  honor  which 
arose  in  my  heart  unbidden.  I  prayed,  I  fasted  at 
Christmas  and  Easter  times.  I  secretly  hunted  the 
book-shops  of  Calcutta  to  gather  the  so-called  like- 
nesses of  Christ.  I  did  not  know,  I  cared  not  to 
think,  whither  all  this  would  lead. 

About  the  year  1867,  a  very  painful  period  of 
spiritual  isolation  overtook  me.  I  have  repeatedly 
during  such  seasons  lost  the  sympathy  of  friends, 
and  sought  my  God  alone.  But  one  of  the  severest 
trials  was  at  the  time  to  which  I  make  allusion.  I 
was  almost  alone  in  Calcutta.  My  inward  trials  and 
travails  had  really  reached  a  crisis.  It  was  a  week- 
day evening,  I  forget  the  date  now.  The  gloomy  and 
haunted  shades  of  the  summer  evening  had  suddenly 
thickened  into  darkness;  and  all  things,  both  far  and 
near,  had  assumed  an  unearthly  mysteriousness.  I 
sat  near  the  large  lake  in  the  Hindu  College  com- 
pound. Above  me  rose  in  a  sombre  mass  the  giant, 
grim,  old  seesum  tree,  under  the  far-spreading  foliage 
of  which  I  have  played  so  often,  and  my  father 
played  before  me.  A  sobbing,  gusty  wind  swam  over 
the   water's    surface,    the    ripples    sounded    on  the 


PREFACE  I I 

grassy  bank,  the  breeze  rustled  in  the  highest  regions 
of  the  great  tree.  My  eyes,  nearly  closed,  were  yet 
dreamily  conscious  of  the  gloomy  calmness  of  the 
scenery.  I  was  meditating  on  the  state  of  my  soul, 
on  the  cure  of  all  spiritual  wretchedness,  the  bright- 
ness and  peace  unknown  to  me,  which  was  the  lot  of 
God's  children.  I  prayed  and  besought  heaven.  I 
cried,  and  shed  hot  tears.  It  might  be  said  I  was 
almost  in  a  state  of  trance.  Suddenly,  it  seemed  to 
me,  let  me  own  it  was  revealed  to  me,  that  close  to 
me  there  was  a  holier,  more  blessed,  most  loving 
personality  upon  which  I  might  repose  my  troubled 
head.  Jesus  lay  discovered  in  my  heart  as  a  strange, 
human,  kindred  love,  as  a  repose,  a  sympathetic  con- 
solation, an  unpurchased  treasure  to  which  I  was 
freely  invited.  The  response  of  my  nature  was 
unhesitating  and  immediate.  Jesus,  from  that  day, 
to  me  became  a  reality  whereon  I  might  lean.  It 
was  an  impulse  then,  a  flood  of  light,  love,  and  con- 
solation. It  is  no  longer  an  impulse  now.  It  is  a 
faith  and  principle ;  it  is  an  experience  verified  by  a 
thousand  trials.  It  was  not  a  bodily  Christ  then ;  it 
is  much  less  a  bodily  emanation  now.     A  character. 


12  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

a  spirit,  a  holy,  sacrificed,  exalted  self,  whom  I  recog- 
nize as  the  true  Son  of  God.  According  to  my 
humble  light,  I  have  always  tried  to  be  faithful  to  this 
inspiration.  I  have  been  aided,  confirmed,  encour- 
aged by  many,  and  most  of  all  by  one.  My  aspira- 
tion has  been  not  to  speculate  on  Christ,  but  to  be 
what  Jesus  tells  us  all  to  be.  That  labor,  I  know, 
will  not  end  in  this  life  ;  and  the  goal  as  well  as  the 
prize  is  elsewhere.  But  it  is  still  a  great  privilege 
and  a  great  reward  to  be  able  to  say  something  on 
what  so  many  look  up  to  with  longing  and  fond  aspi- 
ration. I  can,  with  perfect  truth,  declare  that  it  is 
the  grace  and  activity  of  the  indwelling  presence  of 
God  alone  whereto  I  am  indebted  for  these  experi- 
ences.    But,  such  as  they  are,  I  set  them  down. 

I  shall  be  content,  if  what  I  say  in  these  pages 
at  all  tend  to  give  completeness  to  any  man's  ideas 
of  the  life  and  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  set 
down  these  views  without  any  pretension  to  schol- 
arship. They  are  but  the  meditations  of  a  heart 
which,  without  any  human,  stimulus  or  guidance, 
long  ago  recognized  its  personal  relationship  to  the 
soul  and  sympathy  of  Christ.     In  the  midst  of  these 


PREFACE  13 

crumbling  systems  of  Hindu  error  and  superstition, 
in  the  midst  of  this  self-righteous  dogmatism  and 
acrimonious  controversy,  in  the  midst  of  these  cold, 
spectral,  shadows  of  transition,  secularism,  and  agnos- 
tic doubt,  to  me  Christ  has  been  like  the  meat  and 
drink  of  my  soul.  His  influences  have  woven  round 
me  for  the  last  twenty  years  or  more,  and,  outside 
the  fold  of  Christianity  as  I  am,  have  formed  a  new 
fold,  wherein  I  find  many  besides  myself.  I  repeat 
that  what  I  say  of  Christ  is  only  derived  from  my 
own  humble  experiences,  fanned  by  the  guardian 
spirit  of  a  beloved  teacher.  And  this  is  my  sole 
justification  in  venturing  to  publish  anything  on  the 
subject.  If  my  sentiments  be  found  to  correspond 
with  those  of  others  more  advanced  in  the  heavenly 
kingdom ;  if  they  strengthen  and  help  any  yet  behind 
on  the  forward  way ;  if  they  call  forth  more  thought, 
higher  aspiration,  clearer  faith,  and  purer  character 
in  any  man,  I  shall  consider  that  as  a  grace  and 
blessing  of  God  upon  this  my  work  of  many  long 
and  anxious  days. 

Boston,  October,  1883. 


INTRODUCTION 

"  I  ^HE  estimates  of  character  vary,  if  viewed  from 
different  stand-points.  Particularly  when  the 
singularity  of  a  nature  happens  to  lie  in  its  many- 
sidedness,  representations  of  it  may  be  conflicting, 
but  quite  genuine  a.nd  correct.  It  never  formed  part 
of  the  principles  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  to  maintain 
that  its  ideas  respecting  the  life  and  teachings  of 
great  prophets  admitted  of  no  correction  or  improve- 
ment. In  fact  its  absolute  teachableness  on  such 
subjects  is  its  only  spiritual  peculiarity.  The  Brah- 
mos  have  therefore,  in  a  uniform  spirit  of  humility, 
criticised  other  men's  notions,  trusting  that,  like 
themselves,  their  neighbors  will  not  be  ashamed  to 
learn  from  them.  The  utterances  of  the  Brahmo 
Somaj  of  India  at  different  times  on  the  founder  of 
Christianity,  and  some  of  its  doctrines  have  created 
a  good  deal  of  agitation  in  the  Christian  communities 
of  other  countries.  A  principal  point  of  difference 
between  the  Christians  and  the  Brahmos  on  such 
matters  is  this.  The  latter  maintain  that  the  life 
and   teachings   of    Jesus   have    been    presented   by 


l6  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

Christian  missionaries  through  the  colored  medium 
of  European  ideals  and  European  theology,  and  have 
therefore  failed  to  attract  those  spiritual  instincts 
and  national  sympathies  for  which  the  Hindus,  as 
a  primitive  Eastern  race,  are  distinguished.  It  is 
held  that  the  celestial  figure  of  the  sweet  Prophet 
of  Nazareth  is  illumined  with  strange  and  unknown 
radiance,  when  the  light  of  oriental  faith  and  mystic 
devotion  is  allowed  to  fall  upon  it.  It  is  a  fact  that 
the  greatest  religions  of  the  world  have  sprung  from 
Asia.  It  has,  with  some  accuracy,  been  said,  there- 
fore, that  it  is  an  Asiatic  only  who  can  teach  religion 
to  Asiatics.  Not  that  Europeans  are  of  no  use  here. 
On  the  contrary,  Christian  missionaries,  Christian 
men,  and  Christian  literature,  above  all,  have  roused 
the  dormant  nature  of  Eastern  people, —  pre-emi- 
nently of  our  own  people, —  suggested  inquiries  and 
stimulated  thought,  the  natural  results  of  which  show 
themselves  in  that  religious  activity  which  more  or 
less  characterizes  every  part  of  India.  But  the 
efforts  of  European  agencies,  suggestive  and  helpful 
as  they  are,  do  not  go  far  enough,  do  not  go  deep 
enough,  but  still  float  on  the  surface,  and  affect  the 
merest  externals  of  human  life.  It  is  a  national 
ideal  only  that  can  touch  the  undercurrents  of  na- 
tional trust  and  aspiration.     And  let  us  assure  our 


INTRODUCTION  1/ 

European  friends  that,  in  religion  at  least,  Hindus 
have  a  powerful  national  life,  which  remains  all  but 
utterly  uninfluenced  by  foreign  preaching.  What 
we  say  is  tantamount  to  a  criticism  of  evangelical 
conceptions  of  Christ's  character,  and  is  therefore 
likely  to  provoke  controversy.  Nay,  it  has  already 
done  so.  What  truth  there  is  in  such  controversy 
it  behoves  all  faithful  Christians  to  try  to  find  out. 
And  for  non-Christians,  too,  the  discussion  has  a 
practical  importance  ;  because,  the  greater  the  depth 
and  variety  of  spiritual  estimate  which  an  indepen- 
dent and  enlightened  appreciation  of  Christ's  exist- 
ence may  indicate,  the  greater  the  gain  to  humanity. 
And,  even  if  any  unintentional  misconception  on  the 
part  of  foreign  propagandists,  perfectly  sincere  and 
natural,  has  to  be  exposed  and  admitted,  is  it  not 
much  better  that  the  misrepresentation  be  at  once 
acknowledged,  rather  than  that  Christ  should  fail  to 
find  wide  acceptance  among  the  children  of  men  ? 
Be  it  a  Hindu,  or  a  Mohammedan,  or  a  Christian, 
who  undertakes  to  offer  higher  and  correcter  inter- 
pretations of  the  Messiah's  being  and  ministry,  it 
only  concerns  us  to  examine  whether  the  interpre- 
tation be  really  high  and  correct;  and,. if  so,  we 
feci  bound  to  accept  it.  Let  Christ's  character  and 
dominion  increase,  let  him  be  made  recognizable  and 


16  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

acceptable  to  all ;  and  if,  in  consequence,  his  wit- 
nesses and  servants  should  suffer  a  decrease  in  their 
reputation  for  wisdom  and  insight,  that  decline  itself 
is  an  honor,  and  that  decrease  a  glory. 

The  argument  generally  put  forward  in  vindica- 
tion of  the  evangelical  views  of  Christ's  life  — 
namely,  that  Christ  is  universal  —  does  require  a 
moment's  consideration.  No  doubt  every  great 
religious  genius  is  universal.  Human  nature  is  very 
much  the  same  everywhere ;  and  the  greatest  repre- 
sentatives of  it  are  sure  to  be  recognized  by  man- 
kind, wherever  born  and  however  brought  up.  This 
applies  certainly  more  to  Christ  than  to  any  other 
prophet.  But,  nevertheless,  each  prophet  has  his 
personal  surroundings,  his  peculiarities  of  time  and 
circumstance.  These  give  a  peculiar  significance  to 
his  life  and  ministry.  There  is  about  him  the  local, 
the  personal,  the  historical,  as  well  as  the  universal. 
There  are  the  conditions  of  birth,  climate,  national- 
ity, education,  and  the  thousand  transmitted  pecu- 
liarities of  the  age.  Those  who  leave  these  out  of 
consideration  can  never  understand  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  man  whom  they  view  as  their  exemplar. 
But  men  arc  often  apt  to  forget  this  truth.  Some- 
times, it  is  impossible  to  act  up  to  this  truth.  We 
shall  give  one  familiar  instance.     For  modern  Eng- 


INTRODUCTION  IQ 

lishmen,  whose  education  and  dispositions  might  be 
said  to  be  ahnost  the  very  opposite  of  what  we  ori- 
entals are,  who,  after  staying  in  our  country  for 
scores  of  years  together,  at  last  declare  that  it  is 
impossible  for  them  to  understand  the  native  char- 
acter, it  is  all  but  hopeless  to  enter  into  the  in- 
stinctive and  hidden  peculiarities  of  Eastern  life  and 
feeling.  So  much  truth  there  is  in  this  statement 
that  the  reader  will  at  once  bear  out  the  statement 
that,  with  many  Europeans,  the  expression  "oriental 
character  "  means  a  mental  organization  essentially 
and  generically  different  from  anything  that  goes 
by  the  name  of  character  in  the  Western  world. 
But  there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule.  For  in- 
stance, the  estimate  of  Brahmo  views  of  the  mission 
and  character  of  Jesus  Christ  by  such  men  as  the 
late  Dean  Stanley,  is  most  sympathetic  and  appre- 
ciative. It  shows  that  there  are  at  least  some  influ- 
ential Christian  men,  who  do  not  necessarily  construe 
difference  of  opinion  into  personal  hostility. 

We  shall  try  to  point  out  here  the  main  views 
of  Christ's  mission  and  character,  as  laid  down  by 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  the  Brahmo  leader.  He  has 
made  three  public  and  authoritative  statements  of 
his  principles  on  this  subject.  The  first  time  he 
spoke  was  in  his  lecture  on  "Jesus  Christ,  Europe 


20  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

and  Asia,"  in  March,  1866,  immediately  after  his 
secession  from  the  Adi  Brahmo  Somaj  at  Jorasanko, 
Calcutta.  With  all  the  light  of  his  genius  and  elo- 
quence, he  held  forth  Christ  as  the  great  man  and 
the  mighty  reformer.  Christ's  influence,  "but  a 
small  rivulet  at  first,  increased  in  depth  and  breadth 
as  it  flowed  along,  and  swept  away  in  its  irresistible 
tide  the  impregnable  strongholds  of  ancient  error 
and  superstition  and  the  accumulated  corruptions  of 
centuries."  He  described  Christ's  mission  thus : 
"  Sent  by  Providence  to  reform  and  regenerate  man- 
kind, he  received  from  Providence  power  and  wisdom 
for  that  great  work."  But  Keshub  gave  utterance 
to  views  which,  in  their  capability  of  development, 
produced  intense  expectancy  among  all  classes.  Set- 
ting forth  in  glowing  sentences  the  moral  greatness 
of  Christ,  "his  tenderness  and  humility,  lamb-like 
meekness  and  simplicity,  his  heart  full  of  mercy 
and  forgiving  kindness,  and  set  on  the  other  hand 
his  firm,  resolute,  unyielding  adherence  to  truth," 
Keshub  declared,  in  a  breathless  climax,  "Verily, 
Jesus  was  above  ordinary  humanity."  Well-mean- 
ing Trinitarian  missionaries  at  once  concluded  that 
the  Brahmo  Somaj  was  now  "  not  far  from  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  But  few  at  that  time  took  suffi- 
cient heed  of  a  line  of  sentiment  which  the  Brahmo 


INTRODUCTION  21 

leader  struck  out  for  himself,  while  expatiating  on 
the  more  than  human  excellences  of  the  character 
and  precepts  of  Jesus.  "Was  not  Jesus  Christ,"  he 
asked,  "an  Asiatic  ?  I  rejoice  —  yea,  I  am  proud  — 
that  I  am  an  Asiatic.  He  and  his  disciples  were 
Asiatics,  and  all  the  agencies  primarily  employed  for 
the  propagation  of  the  gospel  were  Asiatic.  In  fact, 
Christianity  was  founded  and  developed  by  Asiatics 
in  Asia.  When  I  reflect  on  this,  my  love  for  Jesus 
becomes  a  hundred-fold  intensified.  I  feel  him  nearer 
my  heart  and  deeper  in  my  national  sympathies. 
Shall  I  not  rather  say  he  is  more  congenial  and 
akin  to  my  oriental  nature,  more  agreeable  to  my 
oriental  habits  of  tJwught  and  feeling?  And  is  it 
not  true  that  an  Asiatic  can  read  the  imageries  and 
allegories  of  the  gospel  and  its  descriptions  of  nat- 
ural sceneries,  of  customs  and  manners,  with  greater 
interest  and  a  fuller  perception  of  their  force  and 
beauty  than  Europeans  }  In  Christ,  we  see  not 
only  the  exaltedness  of  humanity,  but  also  the  grand- 
eur of  which  Asiatic  nature  is  susceptible.  To  us 
Asiatics,  therefore,  Christ  is  doubly  interesting;  and 
his  religion  is  entitled  to  our  peculiar  regard  as  an 
altogether  oriental  affair.  The  more  this  great  fact 
is  pondered,  the  less  I  hope  will  be  the  antipathy 
and  hatred  of  European  Christians  against  oriental 


22  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

nationalities,  and   the   greater   the   interest    of   the 
Asiatics  in  the  teachings  of  Christ." 

The  long  interval  of  apparent  silence  which 
Keshub  preserved  on  this  subject,  and  the  diverse 
channels  of  thought  and  development  into  which  he 
proceeded  during  that  time,  allayed  the  premature 
anticipations  of  his  speedy  conversion  to  evangelical 
Christianity.  Many  of  his  quondam  admirers  were 
so  far  discouraged  as  to  circulate  the  report  that 
he  had  recanted  his  previously  expressed  views. 
Keshub's  lectures  and  orations  in  England,  in  1870, 
sufficiently  showed  that  he  had  recanted  nothing, 
withdrawn  nothing,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  his 
ideas  and  principles  with  regard  to  Christ  and  Chris- 
tianity had,  during  the  last  four  years,  greatly  gained 
in  maturity  and  soundness.  The  high  encomiums 
bestowed  upon  him  by  such  men  as  Dr.  Pusey, 
Dean  Stanley,  Lord  Lawrence,  and  bodies  of  clergy- 
men in  different  parts  of  England,  amply  testified 
that  the  position  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  in  regard  to 
Christ  and  Christianity,  had  not  receded,  but  ad- 
vanced considerably.  The  extent  of  this  advance, 
however,  no  one  had  any  means  or  opportunity  to 
measure  until  nine  years  later.  In  April,  1879, 
Keshub  delivered  his  lecture  on  "  India  asks  who  is 
Christ  ? "     It  was   exactly  thirteen    years   after   his 


INTRODUCTION  23 

preliminary  utterances  on  "Jesus  Christ,  Europe, 
and  Asia."  The  line  of  original  thought  indicated 
in  his  last  great  public  enunciation  had  now  led  him 
to  form  a  perfectly  unique  estimate  of  the  character 
and  mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  England,"  said  he, 
after  a  few  opening  sentences,  "  has  sent  to  us,  after 
all,  a  Western  Christ." 

It  seems  that  the  Christ  that  has  come  to  us  is  an  English- 
man, with  English  manners  and  customs  about  him,  and  with  the 
temper  and  spirit  of  an  Englishman  in  him.  Hence  is  it  that 
the  Hindu  people  shrink  back  and  say,  Who  is  this  revolu- 
tionary reformer  who  is  trying  to  sap  the  very  foundations  of 
native  society,  and  bring  about  an  outlandish  faith  and  civili- 
zation quite  incompatible  with  oriental  instincts  and  ideas  .-* 
Why  must  we  submit  to  one  who  is  of  a  different  nationality.'' 
Why  must  we  bow  before  a  foreign  prophet  ?  It  is  a  fact 
which  cannot  be  gainsaid  that  hundreds  upon  hundreds,  thou- 
sands upon  thousands,  even  among  the  most  intelligent  in  the 
land,  stand  back  in  moral  recoil  from  this  picture  of  a  foreign 
Christianity  trying  to  invade  and  subvert  Hindu  society ;  and 
this  repugnance  unquestionably  hinders  the  progress  of  the 
true  spirit  of  Christianity  in  this  country.  When  they  feel 
that  Christ  means  nothing  but  denationalization,  the  whole 
nation  must  certainly,  as  one  man,  stand  up  to  repudiate  and 
banish  this  acknowledged  evil.  But  why  should  you  Hindus 
go  to  England  to  learn  Jesus  Christ .''  Is  not  Christ's  native 
land  nearer  to  India  than  England  ?  Are  not  Jesus  and  his 
apostles  and  immediate  followers  more  akin  to  Indian  nation- 


24  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

ality  than  Englishmen  ?  Are  not  the  scenes  enacted  in  the 
drama  of  the  Christian  dispensation  altogether  homely  to  us 
Indians?  When  we  hear  of  the  lily,  and  the  sparrow,  and  the 
well,  and  a  hundred  other  things  of  Eastern  countries,  do  we 
not  feel  we  are  quite  at  home  in  the  Holy  Land  ?  Why  should 
we,  then,  travel  to  a  distant  country  like  England,  in  order  to 
gather  truths  which  are  to  be  found  much  nearer  our  homes? 
Go  to  the  rising  sun  in  the  East,  not  to  the  setting  sun  in  the 
West,  if  you  wish  to  see  Christ  in  the  plenitude  of  his  glory 
and  in  the  fulness  and  freshness  of  the  primitive  dispensation. 
Why  do  I  speak  of  Christ  in  England  and  Europe  as  the 
setting  sun?  Because  there  we  find  apostolical  Christianity 
almost  gone ;  there  we  find  the  life  of  Christ  formulated 
into  lifeless  forms  and  antiquated  symbols.  But,  if  you  go 
to  the  true  Christ  in  the  East  and  his  apostles,  you  are  seized 
with  inspiration.  You  find  the  truths  of  Christianity  all  fresh 
and  resplendent. 

So  much  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  advantages 
which  our  oriental  nature  confers  upon  us  by  ena- 
bling us  to  gain  a  full  and  clear  insight  into  the 
nature  of  Christ.  In  1866,  Keshub  had  asked,  "Is 
not  Christ  above  ordinary  humanity  ? "  and  he  had 
answered  his  own  query  with  the  exclamation, 
"Verily,  Jesus  is  above  ordinary  humanity."  The 
recurrence  of  the  same  adjective  both  in  the  ques- 
tion and  the  answer  suggests  the  thought  that 
Christ's  humanity  then  was  extraordijiary.     Keshub 


INTRODUCTION  2$ 

substitutes  the  word  "divine"  for  "extraordinary," 
after  a  decade  of  meditation  and  culture.  His  state- 
ment in  the  year  1879  he  commences  with  these 
words,  "  I  desire  to  discourse  on  the  great  subject 
of  the  divinity  of  Jesus."  He  asks:  "Is  Christ 
altogether  human  ?  Are  we  satisfied  that  there  is 
nothing  but  earthly  humanity  in  him  ?  "  It  appears 
that  Christ  believed  earnestly  and  consistently  in 
what  should  be  called  the  doctrine  of  divine  hu- 
manity. Christ  is  said  to  have  struck  the  key-note 
of  this  doctrine  in  the  formula,  "  I  and  my  Father 
are  one."  This  was  an  announcement  of  "identity 
with  the  godhead."  In  analyzing  this  announce- 
ment, Keshub  says  he  finds  "  nothing  but  the  philo- 
sophical principle  underlying  the  popular  doctrine 
of  self-abnegation  in  a  very  lofty  spiritual  sense, 
Christ  destroyed  self.  And,  as  self  ebbed  away,, 
heaven  came  pouring  into  the  soul.  For  nature 
abhors  a  vacuum ;  and  hence,  as  soon  as  nature  is 
emptied  of  self,  divinity  fills  the  void.  The  nature 
of  the  Lord  filled  him,  and  everything  was  divine 
in  him." 

He  always  felt  that  the  root  of  his  being  was  God  him- 
self,—  a  fact  of  which  we  are  not  always  conscious.  He  had 
his  life  rooted  in  divinity.  He  felt  always  that  the  Lord  was 
underlying    his    whole    existence.       And,    therefore,   without 


26  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

equivocation,  and  with  all  the  boldness  and  candor  of  con- 
scious simplicity,  he  proclaimed  unto  the  world  the  fact  that 
he  was  one  with  God. 

According  to  oriental  custom,  Jesus  had  renounced 
friends  and  family,  home,  country,  and  possession, 
and  had  nothing  in  or  about  him  that  could  indicate 
an  individuality.  The  foxes  have  their  holes,  and 
the  birds  of  the  air  their  places  of  shelter,  but  the 
Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  Who 
was  his  mother,  and  who  were  his  brethren  ?  Who- 
soever doeth  the  will  of  his  Father  in  heaven,  the 
same  shall  be  his  brother,  sister,  and  mother.  "This 
unique  character  of  self-surrender  is  the  most  strik- 
ing miracle  in  the  world's  history."  The  Brahmo 
Somaj  has  been  represented  as  holding  the  personal 
extinction  of  Christ  in  this  doctrine.  But  the  self- 
surrender  of  Christ  did  not,  in  any  sense,  annihilate 
his  personality :  it  simply  brought  an  all-perv^ading 
influx  of  heavenly  life  into  his  soul.  The  divine 
attributes  of  holiness,  love,  and  wisdom,  were  mani- 
fested in  him  as  much  as  created  character  can 
contain. 

But,  certainly,  it  was  never  meant  to  be  held  that 
the  infinite  perfections  of  the  absolute  Godhead  had 
ever  descended  into  Jesus  or  any  other  man.  Yet 
the  possibilities  of  Christ's  character  were  immensely 


INTRODUCTION  2/ 

vaster  than  the  actual  achievement.  Yet  Christ  was 
created  for  a  definite  purpose  ;  namely,  that  of  repre- 
senting perfect  humanity  and  absolute  sonship  on 
earth  as  an  exemplar  of  a  model  man,  a  complete 
piece  of  God's  workmanship,  showing  what  the 
human  soul  should  be  in  this  life.  And  that  pur- 
pose Jesus  Christ  had  fully  answered.  Genuine, 
deep-souled,  perfectly  pure-minded  humanity,  that 
wholly  sacrifices  itself  to  the  love  and  holiness  of 
God,  is  truly  divine.  And  to  Jesus  belongs  that 
divinity.  It  was  not  personal  extinction,  it  was 
utter  personal  subjection,  it  was  the  personality  of 
man  at  one  with  the  personality  of  God.  It  was 
the  absolute  reconciliation  of  Father  and  Son.  This 
was  the  life  of  Christ. 

"The  pre-existence  of  Christ,"  as  explained  by 
the  Brahmo  leader,  is  apt  to  be  interpreted  into  a 
mystical  conception.  But,  carefully  viewed,  it  is  a 
very  different  idea.  Christ  is  said  to  have  existed 
before  his  birth  as  a  part  of  the  divine  plan  for  the 
future  good  of  mankind.  The  omniscience  of  God 
knew  from  the  beginning  the  destinies  of  men.  His 
perfect  knowledge  saw,  in  their  fullest  relations,  the 
causes  and  consequences  of  human  sin  and  salva- 
tion. His  all-comprehending,  far-beholding  provi- 
dence  grasped   all    the    measure  and  magnitude  of 


25  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

evil  in  man's  nature,  and  grasped  also  all  the  ways 

and  means,  all  the  opportunities  and  occasions,  which 

might  be  utilized  as  a  dispensation  by  the  power  of 

which  the  children  of  men  might  be  delivered  from 

the  evil  which  encompassed  them.     Both  the  evil,  and 

the  dispensation  for  deliverance  from  its  power  were 

present  in  the  divine  consciousness  from   the  begin- 

• 

ning  of  the  world.  The  future  Christ,  as  God  had 
meant  to  create  him,  the  potential  energy  of  the  as 
yet  unborn  Christ,  existed  in  the  eternal  depths,  in 
the  dispensation  which  was  to  come  in  the  fulness  of 
time.  In  that  stage,  Christ  certainly  had  no  person- 
ality. He  was  the  thought  and  energy  of  God.  He 
was  the  plan  of  God.  He  was  the  light  of  divine 
reason  and  love,  as  yet  involved  within  the  great 
impenetrable.  In  that  sense,  the  whole  universe  was 
at  one  time  merely  the  thought  of  the  Infinite  Being. 
And  every  one  of  us  has  sprung  from  the  formless 
ocean  of  divinity  that  spread  through  all.  But, 
Keshub  sufficiently  explains  his  meaning,  when  he 
speaks  thus :  "  Christ  pre-existed  as  an  idea,  as  a 
plan  of  life,  as  a  pre-determined  dispensation  yet  to 
be  realized,  as  a  purity  of  character,  not  concrete,  but 
abstract." 

There  may  be  equal  misapprehension  in  regard  to 
Brahmo  views  respecting  Christ's  immortality.     The 


INTRODUCTION  29 

resurrection  of  the  Son  of  Man  does  not,  in  the  re- 
motest sense,  mean  his  absorption  in  the  Spirit  of  the 
Father.  It  is  but  the  raising  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
before  the  throne  of  the  righteousness  and  love  of 
God.  Jesus  lives  in  heaven,  not  as  an  impersonal  and 
absorbed  essence  of  the  divine  consciousness  which 
he  was  before  he  came  to  the  world,  nor  as  a  mate- 
rial form  with  which  popular  imagination  clothes 
him,  but  as  a  separate,  personified  soul  in  its  own 
sphere  of  blessedness,  achieving  a  higher  and  still 
holier  standard  of  perfection  than  was  ever  known 
in  his  life  on  earth.  His  perfection  on  earth  was 
relative,  his  perfection  in  heaven  ever  tending  to 
the  Absolute.  But,  among  us  to-day,  he  lives  as  a 
great  leaven.  "He  lives,"  says  Keshub,  "in  all 
Christian  lives  and  in  all  Christian  influences  at 
work  around  us.  You  may  deny  his  doctrine,  you 
may  even  hate  his  name,  but  you  cannot  resist  his 
influence.  Christ  exists  throughout  Christendom 
like  an  all-pervading  leaven,  mysteriously  and  im- 
perceptibly leavening  the  bias  of  millions  of  men 
and  women." 

The  next  time  that  we  hear  the  Brahmo  leader 
speaking  of  Christ  is  in  1882,  in  his  lecture  on 
"That  Marvellous  Mystery,  the  Trinity."  This  sets 
forth    his    most    mature   views    on    the    nature    and 


30  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  Beginning  to  receive  the 
founder  of  Christianity  as  a  great  man  and  a  reformer 
in  1869,  proceeding  to  recognize  him  as  divine  or 
ideal  humanity  in  1879,  ^^^^  recognition  and  develop- 
ment cuhninated  in  1882  by  rehabilitating  Jesus  as 
the  second  person  in  the  mysterious  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  In  this  last  and  newest  statement,  it  is 
Keshub's  object  to  trace  "the  continued  evolution 
of  the  Logos,  and  its  graduated  development  through 
everlasting  stages  of  life."  The  Hindu  az>a/ar  rises 
from  the  lowest  scale  of  life  through  the  fish,  the 
tortoise,  and  the  hog,  up  to  the  perfection  of  human- 
ity. Such,  precisely,  is  the  modern  theory  of  evo- 
lution. 

How  from  the  lowest  forms  of  gross  matter  is  evolved  the 
vitality  of  the  vegetable  world  in  all  its  fulness  and  luxuriance ! 
And,  then,  from  the  most  perfect  and  vital  types  of  vegetable 
life  springs  the  least  in  the  animal  kingdom,  which  again  rises, 
through  endless  and  growing  varieties,  to  the  very  highest  in 
intelligence  and  sagacity.  But  creation  stops  not  here.  From 
animal  life,  it  ascends  to  humanity,  and  finds  its  full  develop- 
ment in  man.  In  the  evolution  of  man,  however,  creation  is 
not  exhausted.  It  goes  farther  and  farther  still  along  the 
course  of  progressive  humanity.  In  the  earliest  phase  of  his 
life,  whether  in  the  little  infant  or  in  the  primitive  barbarian 
man,  with  all  his  highly  finished  organism,  is  but  a  creature  of 
God.     Through  culture  and  education,  he  rises  in  the  scale  of 


INTRODUCTION  3I 

humanity  till  he  becomes  the  son  of  God.  You  see  how  the 
Lord  asserted  his  power  and  established  his  dominion  in  the 
material  and  the  animal  kingdom,  and  then  in  the  lower  world 
of  humanity.  When  that  was  done,  the  volume  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  closed.  The  New  Testament  commenced  with 
the  birth  of  the  Son  of  God. 

But  the  process  of  evolution  does  not  terminate 
here.  The  development  of  sonship  in  a  solitary 
individual  does  not  fulfil  the  purposes  of  creation. 
The  great,  ultimate  object  of  Christ's  sonship  is  to 
develop  it  in  all  humanity.  Christ  is  only  the  way, 
but  what  force  is  it  that  can  lead  mankind  through 
the  way  to  the  end  .^  This  is  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Keshub  thus  enunciates  his  doctrine  of  Trinity  :  — • 

Here,  you  have  the  complete  triangular  figure  of  the  Trinity, 
three  profound  truths, —  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost, —  making  up  the  harmonious  whole  of  the  economy  of 
creation.  Gentlemen,  look  at  this  clear  triangular  figure  with 
the  eye  of  faith,  and  study  its  deep  mathematics.  The  apex  is 
the  very  God  Jehovah,  the  Supreme  Brahma  of  the  Vedas. 
Alone,  in  his  own  eternal  glory,  he  dwells.  From  him  comes 
down  the  Son  in  a  direct  line,  an  emanation  from  Divinity. 
Thus,  God  descends  and  touches  one  end  of  the  base  of  hu- 
manity, then,  running  all  along  the  base,  permeates  the  world, 
and  then  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  drags  up  regenerated 
humanity  to  himself.  Divinity  coming  down  to  humanity  is 
the  Son:  Divinity  carrying  up  humanity  to  heaven  is  the  Holy 


32  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

Ghost.  This  is  the  whole  philosophy  of  salvation.  Such  is 
the  short  story  of  human  redemption.  How  beautiful !  How 
soul-satisfying!  The  Father  continually  manifests  his  wisdom 
and  mercy  in  creation,  till  they  take  the  form  of  pure  sonship 
in  Christ;  and  then  out  of  one  little  seed-Christ  is  evolved  a 
whole  harvest  of  endless  and  ever-multiplying  Christs.  God 
coming  down  and  going  up, —  this  is  creation,  this  is  salvation. 
In  this  plain  figure  of  three  lines,  you  have  the  solution  of  a 
vast  problem.  The  Father,  the  Son,  the  Holy  Ghost;  the 
Creator,  the  Exampler,  and  the  Sanctifier ;  I  am,  I  love,  I 
save;  the  Still  God,  the  Journeying  God,  the  Returning  God; 
Force,  Wisdom,  Holiness;  the  True,  the  Good,  the  Beautiful; 
Sat,  Chit,  Ananda,  "  Truth,  Intelligence,  and  Joy." 

But  Keshub  strongly  set.s  his  face  against  worship- 
ping Christ  as  Man-God.  "A  Man-God  is  not  intel- 
ligible. It  is  untrue  and  absurd.  It  is  a  lie  and  a 
fiction.  A  God-Man  is  quite  intelligible,  a  possi- 
bility in  the  nature  of  things.  Here,  man  remains 
man,  and  God  is  only  superadded  to  his  nature. 
Humanity  continues  to  be  humanity,  but  divinity 
is  engrafted  upon  it.  Christ  is  not,  never  was, 
never  will  be  God,  the  Father.  He  is  humanity 
pure  and  simple,  in  which  divinity  dwells.  In  him, 
we  see  human  nature  perfected  by  true  affiliation  to 
divine  nature.  And  in  this  affiliation  we  realize 
fully  the  purpose  of  Christ's  life  and  ministry.  He 
shows  us  not  how  God  can  become  man,  nor  how 


INTRODUCTION  33 

man  can  become  God,  but  how  we  can  exalt  our 
humanity  by  making  it  more  and  more  divine,  how, 
while  retaining  our  humanity,  we  may  still  partake 
more  and  more  of  the  divine  character."  To  be 
Christlike  is  always  a  process  of  transformation, 
bringing  us  nearer  and  nearer  to  God.  The  achieve- 
ment of  divine  humanity  has  taken  thousands  of 
years,  and  will  take  many  thousands  more.  The 
leader  of  the  Brahmo  Soma]  thus  idealizes  Christ  as 
universal  humanity  : 

As  the  sleeping  Logos,  did  Christ  live  potentially  in  the 
Father's  bosom,  long,  long  before  he  came  into  this  world  of 
ours.  As  the  Lord  spoke,  the  Logos  or  Reason  came  forth, 
and  was  lodged  in  creation,  not  in  human  beings  alone,  but 
even  in  animals.  Wherever  there  is  intelligence,  in  all  stages 
of  life,  where  there  is  the  least  spark  of  instinct,  there  dwells 
Christ,  if  Christ  is  the  Logos.  In  this  right  and  rational 
view,  do  not  the  Fathers  all  agree  ?  Do  they  not  speak  of  an 
all-pervading  Christ  ?  Do  they  not  bear  unequivocal  testimony 
to  Christ  in  Socrates  ?  Even  in  barbarian  philosophy  and  in 
all  Hellenic  literature,  they  saw  and  adored  their  Logos-Christ. 
In  the  midst  of  this  large  assembly,  I  deny  and  repudiate  the 
little  Christ  of  popular  theology,  and  stand  up  for  a  greater 
Christ,  a  fuller  Christ,  a  more  eternal  Christ,  a  more  universal 
Christ.  I  plead  for  the  eternal  Logos  of  the  Fathers,  and  I 
challenge  the  world's  assent.  This  is  the  Christ  who  was  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  in  Egypt  and  India.  In  the  bards  and  the 
poets  of  the  Rig-Veda  was  he.     He  dwelt  in  Confucius  and  in 


34  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

Sakya  Muni.  This  is  the  true  Christ  whom  I  can  see  every- 
where, in  all  lands  and  in  all  times,  in  Europe  and  in  Asia,  in 
Africa,  in  America,  in  ancient  and  modern  times.  He  is  not 
the  monopoly  of  any  nation  or  creed.  All  literature,  all  science, 
all  philosophy,  every  doctrine  that  is  true,  every  form  of  right- 
eousness, every  virtue  that  belongs  to  the  Son,  is  the  true 
subjective  Christ  whom  all  ages  glorify.  Begotten  by  the 
"volition"  of  Almighty  God,  as  Tertullian  says,  the  Spirit- 
Christ  spread  forth  in  the  universe  as  an  emanation  from  the 
Divine  Reason,  and  you  can  see  him  witlr  the  eye  of  faith 
underlying  the  endless  varieties  of  truth  and  goodness  in 
ancient  and  modern  times.  He  is  the  CJiit-Christ,  pure  intelli- 
gence, the  Word  of  God,  mighty  Logos.  Scattered  in  all 
schools  of  philosophy  and  in  all  religious  sects,  scattered  in 
all  men  and  women  of  the  East  and  the  West,  are  multitudi- 
nous Christ-principles  and  fragments  of  Christ-life,  one  vast 
and  identical  Sonship  diversely  manifested. 

Keshub  speaks  of  Christ  as  the  prince  of  idealists. 
And  his  religion  is  spoken  of  as  supreme  idealism. 
And  it  is  in  this  idealism  that  India  has  a  hold  on 
the  real  nature  of  Christ  and  Christianity.  The 
East  has  always  been  the  home  of  idealism.  The 
prophets  and  seers  of  Asia  penetrated  the  veil  of 
phenomena,  and  saw  behind  it  the  life  and  mean- 
ing of  all  things.  Exuberant  nature,  making  slender 
calls  upon  physical  energy,  invited  the  mind  to 
communion    and    contemplation.     Zoroaster   on   the 


INTRODUCTION  35 

mountain  tops,  the  old  Aryan  sages  of  India  in  the 
deep  wood  or  romantic  river  banks,  found  the  whole 
world  idealized  before  them  into  the  purposes  and 
perfections  of  the  Great  Spirit.  The  hymns  of  the 
Rig- Veda,  the  mystic  utterances  of  the  Upanishads, 
the  Gathas  of  Zend,  the  Psalms  of  David  and  the 
songs  of  Solomon,  the  wild  strains  of  Jeremiah,  and 
the  ecstatic  visions  of  Isaiah, — all,  all  were  inspired 
by  a  strange  idealism  that  pervaded  the  world  of 
matter  and  the  world  of  man.  The  raptures  of 
mystic  devotion  and  the  traditions  of  an  unspeak- 
able faith  were  handed  down  from  race  to  race, 
from  realm  to  realm,  till  the  whole  atmosphere  of 
the  Eastern  world  was  suffused  with  an  everlasting 
glow  of  spiritual  relations  and  prophetic  vision  that 
found  their  counterpart  nowhere  else  on  earth.  In 
that  luminous  atmosphere,  the  spirit  of  Jesus  has 
been  the  brightest  star.  Before  him  and  around 
him  there  was  a  great  galaxy  of  enraptured  idealists, 
who  foretold  him,  saw  him  in  their  dreams,  and 
centred  their  expectations  in  him.  And,  when  he 
came  in  the  fulness  of  time,  his  glory  overshadowed 
the  glory  of  others :  while  he  increased,  they  de- 
creased. Born  thus  in  the  hemisphere  and  home 
of  a  sublime  prophetic  fervor,  he  inherited  the  devo- 
tion, the  self-immersion,  the  faith,  the  fasts,  and  the 


36  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

night-watchings,  the  deep  sorrow  and  the  continued 
meditation,  tlie  poverty,  asceticism,  and  the  meek- 
ness of  all  those  who  had  gone  before  him.  The 
fragments  of  primitive  prophecy  and  enraptured 
poetry,  the  ancient  lights  of  goodness  and  self- 
sacrifice,  were  concentrated  in  him  as  in  a  focus. 
John  had  announced  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Jesus 
pointed  to  it.  Pointed  where, —  to  the  groves  and 
pastures,  the  hills  and  lakes  of  his  native  land  ? 
No :  he  pointed  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  his 
own  heart.  He  pointed  to  the  inner  sphere  where 
his  disembodied  spirit  communed  with  the  eternal 
Spirit  of  life;  and,  beholding  God  in  him  and  himself 
in  God,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one." 
But,  if  he  beheld  his  Father  in  his  soul,  he  also 
beheld  his  brethren  in  him,  and  cried,  "Abide  in  me, 
and  I  in  you." 

This  is  pure  idealism.  The  idealism  of  Christ  is 
an  exalting  theme.  He  lived  in  a  material  body,  it 
is  true  ;  but  his  mind  lived  in  its  idealized  home,  the 
kingdom  of  the  Spirit.  He  was  not  intent  upon 
what  he  would  eat  or  what  he  would  wear,  but  lived 
on  the  bosom  of  the  Paternal  Spirit,  partaking  of 
meat  that  we  know  not  of,  and  drinking  of  a  foun- 
tain which  was  the  very  word  of  God.  The  soul  of 
righteousness  and  love  he  saw  in  all  material  nature. 


INTRODUCTION  37 

It  was  always  a  present  miracle  to  him,  it  was  always 
a  present  providence  upon  which  he  could  depend  for 
everything.  He  looked  upon  the  gardens,  the  vines, 
the  fields,  lambs,  and  shepherds,  with  an  idealizing 
gaze.  He  saw  in  them  meanings,  analogies,  and 
sentiments  which  nobody  .else  could  see.  He  looked 
upon  the  clear  sky,  and  with  a  mystic  sight  beheld 
Moses  and  Elias  and  all  the  hosts  of  heaven, —  beheld 
himself  in  their  midst,  in  the  wonderful  originality  of 
a  glorious  idea.  Nay,  he  idealized  even  his  flesh  and 
blood,  and  administered  them  to  his  disciples  as  a 
sacrament  whose  sublime  beauty  touches  and  softens 
even  the  hard  materialism  of  the  present  day.  The 
invisible  he  made  visible  in  himself  while  he  lived ; 
and,  now  that  he  is  invisible,  and  we  would  fain  be- 
hold his  face  once  more,  but  cannot,  he  has  left  be- 
hind him  the  reality  of  idealism,  which  is  the  only 
solid  world  of  truth,  goodness,  and  love  amid  this 
vain  outward  world  of  show,  change,  and  death. 
In  that  goodness  and  righteousness  alone,  the  duties 
and  labors  of  this  life  have  earnest  truth  in  them. 
In  the  reality  of  that  love  alone,  the  deep  wounds 
and  sufferings  of  this  world  have  anything  like  con- 
solation. But  in  the  midst  of  this  hard  material 
world,  there  is  a  hidden  world  of  God's  righteous- 
ness and  peace,  where  prayer   brings    its  response. 


38  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

and  faith  its  reward.  In  that  world  which  he  called 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  he  lived.  It  is  the  world  of 
idea,  the  world  of  spirit.  In  this  ideal  world,  he  was 
a  king.  Was  his  throne  a  throne  of  gold  and  sap- 
phire .''  Were  his  ministers  the  emissaries  of  wealth 
and  worldliness  ?  His  throne  was  made  up  of  meek- 
ness and  righteous  peace,  and  his  ministers  were 
men  who  had  forsaken  all  to  serve  their  God  in  suf- 
fering and  death.  What  purer  idealism  can  there 
be  than  that  the  ministers  and  judges  of  a  kingdom 
should  be  without  name  and  influence,  without  purse 
and  scrip,  without  friends  and  home,  sent  out  like 
lambs  before  wolves  ?  And,  above  all,  what  sadder 
and  sublimer  idealism  can  there  be  than  that  a  king, 
adored  in  life  and  death,  more  adored  when  dead 
than  when  living,  should  be  made  to  die  in  company 
with  thieves  and  malefactors,  with  dishonor,  deser- 
tion, foul  indignities,  with  poverty  and  desolation  for 
his  only  reward .''  His  sceptre  was  a  reed,  and  his 
crown  was  made  of  thorns.  He  was  naked  and 
thirsty,  he  was  bleeding  and  pierced,  he  was  hooted 
and  jeered.  Thus  died  the  King  of  the  Jews  !  What 
more  bitter  contradiction  could  there  be  between 
reality  and  faith  than  at  this  spectacle  of  wonderful 
death  ?  What  greater  inconsistency  could  there  be 
between  this  outward  meanness  and  inward  royalty? 


INTRODUCTION  39 

But  let  us  not  forget  that  the  death  disguised  an 
idealized  and  eternal  life,  and  the  suffering  was  the 
price  and  the  future  standard  of   immortal  glory. 

Christ  then  was  an  idealist.  He  lived  in  the 
midst  of  an  idea.  He  reigned  and  ruled  in  an  ideal 
community.  He  wanted  to  establish  an  ideal  king- 
dom. He  tried  to  inculcate  an  ideal  brotherhood. 
The  relations  which  he  sought  to  lay  down  between 
the  soul  and  God  still  constitute  the  ideal  piety  of 
the  world.  These  ideals  were  so  deeply  opposed  by 
the  realities  that  surrounded  him  that  the  opposition 
cost  him  his  life.  None  understood  him,  not  even 
his  dearest  disciples  ;  but  only  the  Father  knew  the 
Son,  as  the  Son  knew  the  Father.  Their  mutual 
knowledge  was  above  this  earth :  it  was  ideal  knowl- 
edge, or,  to  use  a  more  familiar  word,  it  was  spir- 
itJial.  It  was  divine.  The  spiritual  and  ideal  were 
one  in  Christ,  because  the  spirit  of  divinity  was  in 
him  ;  but  the  spirit  of  Christ's  idealism  never  for  a 
single  moment  led  him  to  destroy  or  ignore  his  own 
personality.  His  self-surrender  meant  self-subjec- 
tion. His  personal  sacrifice  meant  the  utter  conse- 
cration of  his  own  will  and  life  to  the  will  of  the 
Father.  Happiness,  honor,  and  royalty  he  forsook, 
because  his  Father  gave  these  not  to  him.  Dis- 
honor, humiliation,  and  death  he  preferred,  because 


40  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

his  Father  willed  to  fill  up  his  cup  with  them.  By 
his  self-surrender,  we  have  learned  to  subject  our 
rebellious  selves  to  the  will  of  God.  His  marvel- 
lous patience  in  suffering  sweetens  our  cup  of  woe. 
His  faith  in  the  support  of  the  mercy  of  his  Father 
brings  the  strong  arm  of  infinite  love  to  hold  us, 
when  we  tremble  in  weakness ;  and  the  sublime 
beauty  of  his  death  has  taken  away  from  our  eyes 
the  darkness  and  desolation  of  the  grave.  No : 
Christ  did  not  destroy  his  personality.  Christ  did 
not  come  to  teach  us  to  destroy  our  personality. 
Christ  did  not  teach  the  miserable  doctrine  of  absorp- 
tion and  annihilation  :  on  the  contrary,  Christ  has 
perpetuated  and  glorified  his  own  personality  and 
that  of  his  followers,  by  establishing  between  God 
and  man  the  eternal  relation  of  filial  progress. 
Man's  personality  is  then  truly  human  and  complete 
when  it  is  not  opposed  to  God,  and,  being  one  with 
the  Father,  is  our  genuine  freedom. 

To  accuse  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  therefore,  of  a 
pantheism  which  is  soul-destroying  and  annihilates 
human  personality  is  to  do  them  very  great  injus- 
tice. On  the  contrary,  a  too  prominent  insistence 
on  man's  personality  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of 
modern  theism.  But  it  should  always  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  Brahmo  Somaj   is  not  frightened   by 


INTRODUCTION  4I 

the  name  of  pantheism,  as  evidently  it  is  not  fright- 
ened by  the  name  of  Christianity.  That  pantheism 
which  identifies  the  universe  with  its  Maker,  and 
man  with  God,  the  Brahmo  Soma]  repudiates.  That 
pantheism  which  takes  away  from  the  sinner's  view 
the  painful  spectacle  of  his  own  sins,  and  leaves  no 
field  for  repentance,  progress,  salvation,  and  a  per- 
sonal sense  of  God's  grace  ;  that  pantheism  which 
ignores  the  infinite  difference  between  man  and  God, 
the  Brahmo  Soma]  repudiates.  But  the  Brahmo 
Somaj  was  never  afraid  of  recognizing  the  spirit  of 
a  presiding  Providence  in  all  things.  And  it  is  not 
backward  to  recognize  the  inspiration  of  the  world's 
masters  and  prophets.  Glad  to  discover  the  glory 
and  wisdom  of  the  Supreme  Spirit  on  the  resplen- 
dent face  of  nature  ;  glad  to  behold  his  beauty  and 
peace  in  the  breezy  twilight  of  morning  and  evening; 
glad  to  hear  his  whispers  in  the  events  of  human 
life  and  history,  shall  we  not  rejoice  to  mark  and 
adore  his  workings  in  the  impulses  and  spiritual 
heroism  of  such  men  as  Jesus  Christ .''  Yes  :  Christ 
lived  in  God,  loved  in  God,  taught  in  God,  suffered 
in  God,  that  we,  too,  might  live  and  love,  suffer  and 
teach,  as  he  did.  Christ's  whole  nature  was  swimming 
in  the  ocean  of  Divinity,  as  this  visible  universe  of 
ours  swims  in  the  might  and  majesty  of  God. 


42  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

The  Divine  Spirit  permeates  every  pore  of  matter 
and  of  humanity,  and  yet  is  absolutely  different  from 
both.  There  is  no  flight  of  fowls  to  their  evening 
home  that  is  not  directed  by  the  unerring  hand  of 
Divine  Love.  There  is  no  lily  in  the  field  and  no 
rose  in  the  valley  whose  bloom  and  fragrance  do  not 
come  from  the  breath  of  Infinite  Beauty.  There  is 
no  beauty,  no  wisdom,  no  faithfulness,  no  purity,  no 
piety  and  self-sacrifice  that  is  not  inspired  by  him. 
The  goodness  of  all  the  good  is  a  ray  of  reflection 
from  him,  the  greatness  of  all  the  great  points 
to  his  throne  on  high.  If  this  be  pantheism,  the 
Brahmo  Soma]  is  not  ashamed  of  it,  because  it  has 
been  the  faith  of  all  the  most  religious  and  of  all  the 
highest  teachers  of  mankind.  If  this  be  mysticism, 
the  Brahmo  Somaj  is  proud  of  it.  It  is  eminently 
the  spiritual  instinct  of  India. 

From  such  a  stand-point  only  it  has  been  attempted 
to  view  the  important  attitudes  of  the  career  of  Jesus, 
I  have  tried  to  orientalize  him  as  much  as  possible. 
To  be  able  to  illustrate  more  fully  the  distinctions 
which  may  be  said  to  exist  between  Eastern  and 
Western  conceptions  of  Christ,  let  us  place  side  by 
side  two  strongly  marked  characters.  One  of  them 
is  an  elaborately  learned  man,  versed  in  all  the 
principles  of   theology.     His    doctrine  is   historical, 


INTRODUCTION  43 

exclusive,  arbitrary,  opposed  to  the  ordinary  instincts 
and  natural  common  sense  of  mankind.  He  insists 
upon  plenary  inspiration,  becomes  stern  over  forms, 
continually  descants  on  miracles,  imports  institu- 
tions foreign  to  the  genius  of  the  continent,  and  in 
case  of  non-compliance  with  whatever  he  lays  down 
condemns  men  to  eternal  darkness  and  death.  He 
continually  talks  of  blood  and  fire  and  hell.  He 
considers  innocent  babes  as  the  progeny  of  deadly 
sin :  he  hurls  invectives  at  other  men's  faith,  how- 
ever truly  and  conscientiously  held.  No  sacred 
notions  are  sacred  to  him,  unless  he  has  taught 
them.  AH  self-sacrifice,  which  he  does  not  under- 
stand, is  delusion  to  him.  All  scriptures  are  false 
which  have  grown  up  outside  of  his  dispensation, 
climate,  and  nationality.  He  will  revolutionize, 
denationalize,  and  alienate  men  from  their  kith  and 
kin.  Wherever  he  goes,  men  learn  to  beware  of 
him.  He  is  a  Mlecha  to  Hindus,  a  Kaffir  to  Mo- 
hammedans, a  rock  of  offence  to  everybody.  He  is 
tolerated  only  because  he  carries  with  him  the  im- 
perial prestige  of  a  conquering  race.  Can  this  be 
the  Christ  that  will  save  India .-' 

By  his  side  place  another  figure.  He  is  simple, 
natural.  He  is  a  stranger  to  the  learning  of  books. 
Out  of  the  profound,  untaught  impulses  of  his  divine 


44  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

soul,  he  speaks  ;  and,  when  he  speaks,  nations  bow 
their  heads.  His  voice  is  a  song  of  glory  :  his  sen- 
timents are  the  visions  of  a  heaven  in  which  all  men 
are  united  by  love.  His  doctrines  are  the  simple 
utterances  about  a  fatherhood  which  embosoms  all 
the  children  of  men,  and  a  brotherhood  which  makes 
all  the  races  of  the  world  one  great  family.  The 
sinful  and  the  sorrow-stricken,  the  ignorant  and  the 
unwise,  the  publicans  and  harlots,  the  very  dregs 
and  refuse  of  mankind,  he  draws  around  him.  What 
he  touches  he  purifies,  but  the  touch  of  no  impurity 
can  taint  the  light  of  holiness  in  him.  The  fount- 
ains of  righteousness  he  drinks  as  they  flow  from 
heaven.  The  profoundest  wisdom  and  holiness  come 
to  him  as  comes  natural  breath  to  us.  The  unspeak- 
able peace  of  God  descends  upon  his  soul  as  showers 
descend  upon  the  thirsty  soil.  What  is  invisible  to 
others  is  seen  as  daylight  by  him.  The  music  that 
no  mortal  ear  can  hear,  the  celestial  music  of  the 
union  of  spirit  with  spirit,  filleth  the  expanse  of  his 
nature.  His  every  word  is  a  revelation,  and  he 
beholdeth  revelation  among  all  nations  and  amid  all 
faiths.  His  love  invites  men  to  rest  and  reward. 
His  presence  is  the  presence  of  all  that  is  good 
and  loving :  his  memory  is  a  benediction  unto  all. 
Babes    and    children    he    calls    unto    him,    but    the 


INTRODUCTION  45 

wise  and  self-righteous  he  puts  away.  His  institu- 
tions are  the  simplest  forms  of  instinctive  love  and 
remembrance,  and  his  service  is  the  affectionate 
labor  of  self-devoted  faith.  All  lands  echo  his 
teaching :  all  nations  respond  to  his  mystical  utter- 
ances about  heaven  and  earth.  Wherever  he  treads 
flowers  spring  under  his  feet :  wherever  he  stands 
all  sorrow  and  self-complaint  are  hushed.  His  long, 
uncut  locks  of  hair,  in  which  the  pure  zephyr  of 
the  mountains  plays  ;  his  trailing  garments  of  seam- 
less white,  whose  touch  the  diseased  and  sinful 
eagerly  long  for;  his  beautiful  feet,  washed  with 
precious  ointments  and  wiped  with  women's  hair; 
his  self-immersed  air,  absent  eyes,  brightened  fore- 
head, which  show  that  his  spirit  is  far,  far  away, 
communing  with  beings  whom  we  do  not  see, —  point 
him  out  to  be  the  prophet  of  the  East,  the  sweet 
Jesus  of  the  Galilean  lake,  whom  we  still  see  in  our 
hearts.  The  testimony  of  his  life  and  death  makes 
heavenly  realities  tenfold  more  real  to  us.  His 
patience  and  meekness  in  suffering  are  like  an  ever- 
lasting rock,  which  we  may  hold  by  when  tossed  in 
the  tempest  of  life.  His  poverty  has  sanctified  the 
home  of  the  poor :  his  love  of  healing  fills  the  earth 
with  innumerable  works  of  benevolence  and  sympa- 
thy, and  fills  with  wonderful  hope  the  bedside  of  the 


46  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

sick  and  dying.  His  death  and  resurrection  call  us 
to  the  mansions  where  he  has  gone  to  wait  for  us. 
Throughout  the  whole  Eastern  world  the  perfume 
of  his  faith  and  devotion  has  spread.  The  wild 
genius  of  Mohammed  knew  and  adored  him  amid  the 
sands  of  Arabia.  The  tender  love-intoxicated  soul 
of  Hafiz  revelled  in  the  sweetness  of  Christ's  piety 
amid  the  rosebuds  and  nightingales  of  Persia.  And 
here,  too,  in  India,  though  latest  and  most  back- 
ward, we  Hindu  Aryans  have  learned  to  enshrine 
him  in  the  heart  of  our  philosophy,  in  the  core  of 
our  exuberant  love.  Look  at  this  picture  and  that. 
This  is  the  Christ  of  the  East,  and  that  of  the  West. 
Very  true  that  the  pictures  are  extreme.  And 
there  are  men  in  the  West  with  an  Eastern  imag- 
ination, as  there  are  orientals  who  have  inherited 
the  coldness  and  hardness  of  Europe.  But  when  we 
speak  of  an  Eastern  Christ,  we  speak  of  the  incarna- 
tion of  unbounded  love  and  grace  ;  and  when  we 
speak  of  the  Western  Christ,  we  speak  of  the  incar- 
nation of  theology,  formalism,  ethical  and  physical 
force.  Christ,  we  know,  is  neither  of  the  East  nor 
of  the  West ;  but  men  have  localized  what  God 
meant  to  make  universal. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE   BATHING   CHRIST. 

T  F  any  one  wishes  to  see  innocence  washed  into 
holiness,  natural  piety  changed  into  inspired, 
godlike  spirituality,  a  pure-minded,  tranquil  youth- 
fulness  consecrated  to  untaught  service,  unknown 
sufferings,  and  unexampled  death,  let  him  turn  to 
the  bathing  Christ.  Why  did  Jesus  bathe  .-'  Water 
to  the  oriental  means  perpetual  blessedness.  The 
rain  which  fertilizes  is  God's  grace.  The  stream 
that  rustles  on  is  a  running  source  of  divine  inspi- 
ration. We  in  India,  at  various  times,  have  wor- 
shipped the  God  of  rain.  The  confluences  of  our 
rivers,  the  mountainous  solitudes  where  they  take 
their  rise,  and  the  white,  illimitable  expanse  where 
they  mingle  with  the  sea,  are  more  sacred  than  we 
can  tell.  There  is  a  transcendental  sense  of  the 
divine  in  them, —  the  origin,  the  flow,  the  end  of  all 
things.  Power,  speed,  fruitfulness,  beauty,  purity, 
come  from  the  river.  We  Hindus,  like  our  far-off 
ancestors,  make   offerings    to  the   sea,  the   emblem 


48  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

of  all-investing  eternity.  There  is  no  pilgrimage 
without  immersion  in  water.  The  Brahmin's  most 
pious  exercises  consist  of  ablutions.  With  him,  it 
is  a  daily  baptism.  Bathing  is  ever  holy.  Over  and 
above  the  morning  bath,  which  renews  the  body, 
and  is  an  invariable  prelude  to  the  daily  devotions, 
we  immerse  ourselves  in  water  at  special  times. 
Whenever  an  oriental  has  to  purify  himself  from 
a  personal  impurity,  from  a  social  contamination, 
from  a  death  in  the  household  ;  whenever  he  has 
to  rise  from  one  stage  of  religious  life  into  another ; 
whenever  he  requires  an  initiation  into  higher  spir- 
itual life  and  precept, —  he  must  bathe.  Hence, 
Jesus  bathed. 

John,  in  preaching  his  baptism,  preached  a  change 
of  life.  It  was  a  forsaking  of  gross  sin,  of  heartless 
worldliness,  of  mean  selfishness,  which  then  charac- 
terized the  people  of  Jerusalem  and  the  neighbor- 
hood. It  was  a  remission  of  sins  through  repent- 
ance. It  was  washing  out  the  palpable  carnalities  of 
a  common  life  by  a  tacit  confession,  by  a  solemn  vow, 
by  an  imposing  ceremony.  Life  to  us  in  the  East 
is  like  the  feverish,  fitful  day,  with  its  heats,  excite- 
ments, and  enervating  fatigues.  The  coolness  of  air 
and  water  is  like  a  regeneration.  Water  washes  and 
purifies,  water  cools  and  comforts,  water  beautifies 


THE    BATHING    CHRIST  49 

and  refreshes.  Throughout  our  part  of  the  world, 
therefore,  bathing  typifies  the  cleansing  and  refresh- 
ing of  the  spirit  by  a  cleansing  and  refreshing  of  the 
body.  It  is  so  hot  in  our  burning,  mid-day  sun, — 
so  dry,  dusty,  weary,  cheerless  is  the  day  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  year, —  so  oppressive  with  thirst, 
perspiration,  a  growing  sense  of  bodily  discomfort 
and  impurity,  that,  with  a  strong,  silent  longing,  we 
look  to  water,  washing,  and  immersion.  The  anal- 
ogy between  the  outer  and  inner  in  the  imaginative 
Asiatic  is  most  natural.  And,  hence,  Jesus  bathed. 
But  did  Jesus  bathe  as  others  bathed }  Was  it 
in  his  case  the  remission  of  sins  by  repentance.^ 
Ah,  no  !  In  the  midst  of  the  awe-struck  crowd  that 
gathered  to  listen  to  the  violent  wordsi  of  the  wild 
man  there  was  Jesus  also.  Unknown  and  unknow- 
ing, there  he  stood,  a  sweet,  mysterious  youth, 
known  perhaps  to  the  Baptist  only,  who  recognized 
him  among  the  listening  hundreds,  and  spoke  of  him 
as  he  had  spoken  of  no  other  man.  Others  washed 
themselves  of  their  sins  in  water,  in  the  flowing 
tears  of  repentance,  "  the  fruitful  river  in  the  eye." 
But  Jesus  washed  himself  in  the  Spirit  Divine. 
Ceremonial  water  cannot  wash  mere  flesh  into  the 
spirit.  It  is  sinlessness  that  can  be  washed  into 
true  spirituality.     In  divine  blessedness,  in  the  rush- 


50  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

ing  river  of  perpetual  inspiration,  the  sinless  Jesus 
immersed  himself.  The  all-investing  eternity  of 
truth,  holiness,  and  love, —  the  Spirit, —  changed  him 
into  a  spirit.  His  baptism  was  a  birth  into  the  land 
of  spirits.  Henceforth,  Jesus  was  no  longer  flesh 
and  blood.  He  was  spiritualized  humanity,  he  was 
the  son  of  God.  He  sought  the  baptism  which 
thousands  sought.  The  Baptist  would  not  suffer 
him.  John  knew  who  it  v/as  that  looked  up  to  him 
for  the  initiatory  rite.  "  I  have  need  to  be  baptized 
of  thee,"  said  he.  But  the  type  of  meekness  did 
not  want  any  distinctive  recognition.  He  levelled 
himself  to  the  surrounding  humanity.  The  purifi- 
catory rite  which  sanctified  the  publican  and  the 
sinner  sufficed  for  him.  Yet  what  a  difference  there 
was  in  the  kind  and  character  of  the  purification  J 
That  was  a  strange  purification,  diffusive  and  ever- 
lasting. Untold  thousands  have  been  washed  and 
blessed  by  his  baptism,  and  raised  from  earth  to 
heaven.  We  men  of  the  New  Dispensation  are 
enjoined  to  bathe  daily  in  the  baptism  of  Jesus. 
We  have  united  together  the  sanctity  of  Christian 
baptism  and  Hindu  ablutions.  When  Jesus  bathed, 
whole  humanity  bathed  in  him,  and  became  clean. 
Hence,  Jesus  bathed. 

It  was  far  away  from  the  clamorous,  the  distract- 


THE    BATHING    CHRIST  5 1 

ing  scenes  of  the  town.  The  barren,  beetling  rocks, 
the  wide  waste  of  wilderness,  the  solitude  and  silence 
of  the  desert,  the  overarching  calmness  of  the  infi- 
nite blue  above,  the  perpetual  course  of  the  clear, 
crystal  waters,  the  mystery  of  their  rise  and  dis- 
appearance, their  tranquil,  sound  depth,  coolness, — 
all  these,  and  the  feelings  in  the  mind  of  a  young 
devotee  they  inspire,  might  very  well  suggest  a  new 
life,  a  different  life, —  a  higher,  holier,  strange,  unfa- 
miliar life.  And,  amid  all  this,  the  gaunt,  weird 
figure  of  the  Baptist,  his  mysterious  meat  and  drink, 
his  shaggy  garment  and  girdle,  the  fierce,  scathing 
eloquence  of  his  cry,  made  the  thoughts  and  sugges- 
tions of  that  new  life  more  impressive  still.  John 
had  come  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord.  How 
were  men  to  walk  in  that  unknown  way  .-*  The 
external  washes  externals.  And  when,  in  India,  the 
mere  clothing  gets  soiled,  we  wash  it  well.  But, 
when  a  metal  becomes  impure,  the  uncleanness,  it 
is  thought,  pierces  the  very  grain  whereof  the  vessel 
is  made.  Then,  no  washing  can  cleanse  it  ;  fire, 
blazing  fire,  alone  can  make  it  clean.  Who  was 
to  teach  them  that  ?  Their  sins  might  be  out- 
wardly renounced,  and  the  garments  of  their  char- 
acter washed  by  the  water  of  John's  repentance. 
But,  to  purge,  change,  and  renew  the  very  substance 


$2  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

of  that  character,  was  not  some  other  baptism  nec- 
essary,—  the  baptism  of  fire  and  the  spirit,  the  bap- 
tism of  suffering  and  blood  ?  Who  was  to  give  them 
that?  The  object  was  fitting,  the  occasion  was 
fitting,  the  place  was  fitting ;  and  Jesus  determined 
to  bathe.  He  bathed  himself  into  a  new  life  and 
new  work,  the  life  and  mission  for  which  he  came 
to  the  world.  A  fresh,  youthful  life  of  meditation, 
prayer,  faith,  purity ;  a  warm,  loving,  aspiring,  mod- 
est, sweet  life,  was  going  to  be  devoted  forever  as 
a  sacrifice,  that  by  the  giving  of  it  men  might  be 
called  to  sonship,  sainthood,  and  salvation.  Oh,  how 
awful  was  that  devotedness  !  How  much  did  it  in- 
volve !  How  different  was  his  resolution  from  that 
of  other  men  ! 

The  secret  thirty  years,  veiled  in  an  inviting  mys- 
tery, were  only  a  prelude  to  his  baptism.  His  bap- 
tism was  the  end  of  the  beginning,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end.  It  was  the  first  of  the  two  great 
human  sacraments.  It  was  the  crisis  of  all  previous 
faith  and  aspiration.  It  was  the  fateful,  pregnant 
juncture  between  the  life  of  the  Messiah  and  the 
mere  devotee.  Well  may  it  be  commemorated  and 
made  perpetual  in  the  spiritual  crisis  of  every  sin- 
cere seeker  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Spirit.  Well  may 
it  be  an  everlasting  covenant  in  that   holy  church 


THE    BATHING    CHRIST  53 

which  is  compared  to  his  body.  The  eventful  future 
was  involved  in  that  simple  act  of  initiation.  Every- 
thing else  —  life,  pleasure,  prosperity,  honor,  domes- 
ticity, hope  —  melted  away  in  the  water  of  baptism. 
Everything  —  habit,  home,  friendship,  relationship, 
safety,  and  comfort  —  was  renounced  in  that  blessed 
bathing.  The  water  entered  into  the  very  pores 
of  his  being,  and  washed  away  all  else  from  there. 
The  water  entered  into  the  most  profound  recesses 
of  his  being,  and  bathed  it  in  a  consciousness  of 
divine  presence,  divine  calling,  divine  devotedness, 
divine  absorption.  All  earth  faded  away  before  him. 
It  all  seemed  to  be  a  new  world.  The  whole  heart 
was  new.  The  whole  future  was  new.  Heaven  and 
earth  looked  as  they  had  never  looked  before.  Was 
it  not  the  kingdom  of  God  that  appeared  within  and 
without  .'*  He  prayed  to  enter  into  that  kingdom. 
That  prayer  was  immediately  responded  to.  It  was 
not  the  remission  of  sin,  but  the  re-entering  of  Para- 
dise. It  was  the  reconciliation  of  God  and  man.  It 
was  the  second  Adam  reviving  the  world,  the  re- 
establishment  of  highest  relations  between  life  and 
eternity.  "  And,  lo !  the  heavens  opened  unto  him, 
and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God  descending  like  a 
dove,  and  lighting  upon  him  ;  and,  lo  !  a  voice  from 
heaven,  saying.  This  is  my  beloved  son,  in  whom  I 


54  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

am  well  pleased."  Who  would  not  wish  to  bathe  in 
his  baptism,  and  hear  such  a  voice  from  the  heavens 
above ;  that  is,  in  the  deep  places  of  their  own 
hearts  ? 

THE    HOLY    SPIRIT    AS    DOVE. 

In  the  great  Upanishads,  the  divine  as  well  as  the 
human  spirit  is  likened  unto  the  bird.  The  bird  is 
a  mystic  poetic  being,  half-celestial,  half-earthly, 
flying  over  ocean  and  mountain  heights,  across  con- 
tinents, in  all  latitudes.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the 
Garuda  and  the  Shuka  of  Hindu  mythology .''  And 
there  is  no  bird  like  the  dove.  The  dove  is  the  bird 
of  gentleness,  quiet  and  sweet,  singing  in  low  calm 
notes  in  the  morning  and  evening  tide.  Its  round, 
mild,  beautiful  eyes  shed  the  light  of  benignant  soft- 
ness. Among  birds  or  animals,  no  creature  can  ap- 
proach to  the  dignified  gentleness  of  the  dove.  The 
dove  is  the  bird  of  innocence.  It  avoids  every  scene 
and  place  where  harm  is  possible :  it  disturbs  no  one, 
brings  loss  or  hurt  to  no  one,  costs  no  one  anything. 
It  lives  in  desert  places  and  leafy  shades  in  seclu- 
sion, giving  every  one  who  sees  it  the  idea  of  simple 
unobtrusive  innocence  that  pleases  by  its  quietness. 
The  dove  is  the  bird  of  love.  It  has  always  been 
said  that  the  tenderness   of  this   sweet  bird  for  its 


THE    BATHING    CHRIST  55 

mate  is  most  romantic.  The  simple  song  it  sings  is 
filled  with  an  affectionate  ring,  always  responded  to 
by  the  fellow-singer  from  a  neighboring  bush.  The 
bird  lives  retired  in  strange  solitudes,  its  only  enjoy- 
ment being  the  tender  love  which  it  gives  and  re- 
ceives. The  dove  is  the  bird  of  melancholy.  There 
is  a  vague  sadness  in  its  low  long  note.  In  our 
simple  villages  there  is  quite  a  superstition  that,  if 
the  dove  settles  in  any  neighborhood,  there  will  be 
sorrow,  and  before  long,  death.  The  dove  is  the 
bird  of  holiness  wanted  in  sacrificial  offerings  among 
the  Hebrews.  It  is  the  bird  of  the  poor  who  used 
to  present  it  before  the  altar  to  wash  away  their 
sins,  and  propitiate  the  God  of  the  temple.  It  was 
the  holy  bird  of  hope  that,  during  the  universal 
deluge  and  the  destruction  of  the  world,  appeared 
to  Noah  with  the  green  olive  branch  in  its  mouth 
to  announce  the  good  news  that  there  was  yet  the 
prospect  of  life  for  God's  fair  creation.  The  spirit 
of  gentleness,  melancholy,  innocence,  love,  holiness, 
and  hope  is  symbolized  by  the  dove,  and  hence  in 
the  shape  of  a  dove  the  grace  of  God  lighted  on  the 
head  of  the  baptized  Messiah  in  the  holy  stream  of 
Jordan.  In  that  spirit  did  Jesus  preach  and  act  as 
long  as  he  lived  among  men.  Meek,  gentle,  inno- 
cent, loving,  sorrowing,  retired,  pure,  and  self-sacri- 


56  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

ficing,  Jesus  showed  that  he  had  truly  received  in 
his  heart  the  Spirit  which  descended  upon  his  head, 
in  the  form  of  the  holy  dove,  at  the  baptism  of 
John. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE    FASTING   CHRIST. 

JESUS  has  idealized  the  temptations  of  spiritual 
life.  He  met  them  once,  he  conquered  them 
forever.  We  meet  them  often,  and  conquer  them 
seldom.  But  the  great  consolation  and  greater 
faith  which  we  hold  is  that  all  the  insidious  im- 
pulses to  which  a  child  of  the  Spirit  may  be  prone, 
were  involved  in  the  trials  to  which  the  fasting 
Christ  was  exposed,  when  he  was  driven  to  the  wil- 
derness to  be  tempted  of  the  devil.  He  fulfilled 
the  conditions  of  fasting  laid  down  by  himself. 
Washed  in  the  Jordan,  anointed  with  spiritual  unc- 
tion, he  was  led  up  to  the  mountain  to  fast. 

What  is  it  to  fast  .■*  It  is  a  universal  Eastern 
usage.  Hindus,  Hebrews,  Mohammedans,  all  fast. 
To  struggle  with  the  animal  in  man,  to  deny  and  dis- 
cipline the  gross  carnal  self,  is  ordinary  fasting.  It  is 
good  for  every  man  to  practise  it  at  times.  But  fast- 
ing may  mean  more.  It  may  mean  shutting  out  the 
universe  of   sense  altogether,  and   living  in  the  in- 


58  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

finite  impulses  of  the  spirit  within  ;  to  forsake  and 
ignore  the  gravitating  flesh,  to  get  free  from  the 
life  and  mind  that  always  point  beneath,  and  soar 
on  the  wings  of  the  soul  in  its  ascending  flight 
to  the  boundless  azure  of  God.  In  toiling  up  the 
stony  wilderness,  Jesus  ascended  to  the  solitary 
presence  of  the  Supreme.  The  divine  approval  in 
his  baptism  led  to  the  seeking  of  the  divine  purpose. 
Whenever  the  heart  is  immersed  in  the  overflow  of 
eternal  grace,  it  immediately  retires  within  itself,  to 
have  an  insight  into  the  eternal  will.  The  question 
"What  must  I  do  to  serve  thee.-*"  reiterates  itself  in 
the  great  void  wilderness  of  soul,  and  there  is  no 
quiet  until  the  response  come.  This  is  a  secret 
of  the  inner  life,  to  which  whoso  that  has  experience 
there  must  testify.  And  the  significance  of  this 
secret  is  of  unearthly  value  unto  every  one  who 
is  about  to  consecrate  himself  to  the  service  of  God 
forever.  The  spirit  of  the  regenerate  bathes,  and 
then  waits,  watches,  communes,  fasts,  and  prays. 
We  all  know  this  in  the  East.  In  such  holy 
moments,  the  calling  of  the  called  is  declared  unto 
them,  the  command  of  God  is  heard,  the  mission 
^  of  life  pointed  out.  In  the  marvellous  sense  of  self- 
consecration  which  Jesus  felt,  how  overpowering  was 
the  impulse  to  fast  and  seek  solitude ! 


THE    FASTING    CHRIST  59 

Fasting  is  easy  and  helpful,  so  long  as  the  she- 
kinah  of  the  unspeakable  presence  overshadows  the 
devotee.  Hunger,  weakness,  desire,  the  claims  and 
cruelties  of  the  world,  are  soon  forgotten.  But,  even 
in  the  most  exalted  mood,  the  Spirit  forsakes  hu- 
manity for  intervals,  and  leaves  it,  with  such  faith 
and  resolution  as  it  has,  to  fight  with  its  inherent 
weaknesses.  Then  comes  the  real  danger  of  fasting. 
It  was  so  in  the  case  of  the  Hebrew  David  and  Job, 
of  the  Hindu  Narada,  of  the  great  ascetic  Gautama, 
of  every  one,  in  fact,  who  tries  to  fulfil  the  great 
purposes  of  God.  Struggle,  earnest,  deadly  strug- 
gle, is  the  universal,  indispensable  law  of  the 
soul's  advancement.  He  who  has  never  labored 
at  the  all  but  hopeless  difficulty  of  self-conquest, 
knows  and  cares  naught  about  the  mortal  pangs 
of  human  weakness.  To  try  in  sincere,  absolute 
earnest,  to  surrender  one's  all  to  God  is  to  know 
the  fatal  feebleness  of  self,  the  pitiful  incompetence 
of  personal  endeavor.  The  weaknesses  of  the  carnal 
self,  the  animal  man,  are  by  far  stronger  than  the 
strength  of  ordinary  religious  motive.  Those  in 
whom  the  spirit  has  been  mightier  than  the  flesh, 
in  whom  the  flesh  has  been  truly  sacrificed  to  the 
spirit,  are  exceedingly  few.  To  renounce  the  world 
is  to  be  conscious  of  its  temptations.     To  turn  one's 


60  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

back  to  carnal  joys  in  view  of  the  spiritual  kingdom, 
is  often  to  find  it  dark  both  before  and  behind.  If 
fasting  is  an  opportunity  given  to  the  spirit,  it  is 
also  an  opportunity  given  to  the  devil.  It  is  when 
the  flesh  is  weakened  that  the  devil  finds  his  time. 
Who  or  what  is  the  devil  of  the  Christian  concep- 
tion, and  the  Ashura  of  the  Hindu  ?  The  devil  is 
the  carnal  propensity  in  man,  the  devil  is  the  arro- 
gance and  exaltation  of  self,  the  devil  is  the  fond- 
ness for  worldly  vanities  and  triumphs,  the  fondness 
for  wealth  and  dominion.  The  devil  is  therefore  the 
tempter.  All  that  tempts  the  spiritual  man  to  act 
in  opposition  to  the  laws  of  the  Spirit  is  the  devil. 
And  again,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  when  the 
flesh  is  weakened  and  subjected  that  the  spiritual 
man  finds  his  true  manhood.  It  is  then  only  that 
he  receives  the  strength  to  subdue  Satan,  and  keep 
him  in  perpetual  bondage.  The  fasting  Christ  ex- 
emplifies both  the  weakness  and  strength  of  human 
nature,  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  material  and 
animal  self-conquered  by  the  ever-growing  power  of 
the  spirit, 

THE    BREAD    OF    LIFE. 

The  temptations  of  Christ  are  peculiarly  those  of 
absolute  self-consecration  to  faith  and  divine  ser- 
vice.      They   may   throw    occasional    light    on    the 


THE    F-ASTING    CHRIST  6l 

trying  incidents  of  worldly  life,  but  no  ordinary 
experience,  thought,  or  research  can  adequately  con- 
strue those  typical  temptations.  He  that  struggles 
to  renounce  a/l,  and  throw  himself  headlong  into  the 
sea  of  unexplored  impulses,  such  as  unreserv^ed  self- 
surrender  must  bring,  can  get  a  true  insight  into  the 
strange  trials  that  preceded  the  ministry.  Hunger 
typifies  the  primal,  the  universal  want  of  the  whole 
animal  kingdom.  The  energies  and  efforts  of  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  mankind  are  stimulated  by 
the  direct  or  indirect  promptings  of  that  powerful 
instinct.  As  soon  as  a  man  determines  to  throw  in 
his  whole  being  into  a  great,  unprecedented,  unre- 
munerative  cause,  the  first  uncertainty  with  which 
he  is  confronted  is  the  uncertainty  of  bodily  sup- 
port. In  the  opening  spring-tide  of  youthful  excite- 
ment, the  question  of  bread  does  not  occur.  But, 
after  the  stony  wilderness  of  the  world  has  been 
partly  traversed,  and  the  forty  days'  fasting  has 
exhausted  the  powers  of  endurance  and  hope,  the 
craving  necessity  for  food  becomes  an  earnest,  fear- 
ful fact ;  and  the  devoted  enthusiast  has  to  awake, 
and  ask  himself  where  bread  is  to  be  had. 

Jesus  was  conscious  of  his  vocation.  He  knew 
whom  he  had  been  called  to  serve.  He  knew  the 
infinite  wealth  and  munificence  of  his  Father,     He 


62  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

was  conscious  of  the  wonderful  efficacy  of  prayer. 
The  experience  in  him  had  fully  dawned  that  faith 
could  remove  mountains.  Jesus  felt  he  was  the  Son 
of  God.  That  the  Son  should  starve  at  the  thresh- 
old of  his  great  Father's  bounty,  might  naturally 
prompt  the  suggestion,  "  Son  of  God,  command  that 
these  stones  be  turned  into  bread."  It  was  the 
spontaneous  appeal  of  the  afflicted,  hungering  flesh. 
He  evidently  felt  so.  It  seems  as  if  for  a  moment 
he  reasoned  between  physical  and  spiritual  needs. 
But  the  decision  is  speedy  and  clear, —  "Man  does 
not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  which 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God."  The  supreme 
necessity  of  life  is  misrepresented.  It  is  not  the 
perfect  security  of  physical  support.  It  is  strict 
conformity  to  the  highest,  purest  impulses  of  the 
spirit  within.  That  is  the  supreme  and  all-important 
secret  of  human  worth  and  success. 

One  may  perhaps  urge  that  the  spirits  of  differ- 
ent men  yield  to  widely  different  impulses.  Be  it 
so.  Let  each  one  obey  what  is  deejDest,  highest, 
and  purest  in  him.  That  is  the  word,  the  revelation, 
the  Adesh  of  God.  He  that  allows  the  considera- 
tion of  carnal  comfort,  even  of  carnal  necessity,  to 
stand  in  the  way,  runs  the  risk  of  losing  the  highest 
self  in  him.     The  struggle  for  existence  in  a  truly 


THE    FASTING    CHRIST  6j 

spiritual  man  points  to  absolute  fidelity  to  the  ideal, 
while  hunger  and  fatigue  stare  him  in  the  face. 
The  whole  question  of  worldliness  and  asceticism 
centres  here.  The  bread  which  man  eats  is  a  small 
matter,  and  the  sure  accompaniment  of  what  he 
holds  as  his  highest  pursuit.  But  he  that  sacrifices 
his  ideal  to  his  bread  finds,  when  it  is  too  late,  that 
"man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone."  No  man  who 
was  truly  faithful  in  heart  and  conscience  to  his 
God  ever  died  in  want  of  bread.  But  thousands 
who  spent  their  lives  in  earning  and  storing  up  the 
wherewithal  of  this  world  died  in  hunger  and  thirst 
which  no  gold  could  quench.  The  spiritual  guid- 
ance, which,  the  Providence  that  pervades  all  things, 
vouchsafes  to  the  discerning  mind  of  the  man  of 
faith,  is  the  true  means  of  earning  bread  both  for 
the  body  and  the  spirit.  That  is  the  inaudible  word 
which  proceeds  from  the  mouth  of  the  living  God. 
Blessed  is  that  man  who  knoweth  how  to  live  upon 
it.  Here  lies  the  whole  philosophy  of  spiritual 
dependence,  faith,  and  renunciation.  Here  lies  the 
meaning  of  the  prayer,  "  Lord,  give  unto  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread."  God  can  verily  turn  earth 
and  iron  into  genial  sustenance  for  the  body  of  his 
sons.  But  blessed  is  the  son  who  can  say,  "I  da 
not  want  thee  to  work  any  miracle  to  feed  my  flesh ;. 
but  feed  me,  O  Lord,  with  thy  living  word." 


64  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

All  true  self-sacrifice  commences  with  the  repudia- 
tion of  physical  wants  in  the  absorbed  pursuit  of 
the  perfection  of  the  spirit.  Christ  was  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-sacrifice  incarnate.  He  not  only  sacri- 
ficed his  bread,  which  is  but  a  symbol  of  the  flesh, 
but  his  bodily  life  itself,  to  the  word  of  God.  The 
height  of  self-denial  may  be  fitly  called  asceticism. 
Could  there  be  higher  selt-denial,  a  truer  control 
over  the  strongest  instincts  of  nature,  than  to  cast 
away  as  evil  the  suggestion  of  invoking  divine  help 
to  feed  him  at  the  point  of  starvation  ?  Let  those 
who  pray  for  plentiful  harvests,  recoveries  of  royal 
patents,  and  victories  in  battles,  reflect  well  on  this. 
But  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  Christ  accepted  the 
most  ascetic  self-denial  only  when  it  came  in  the 
path  of  divine  command  and  divine  service.  He 
forsook  the  bread  of  the  body  for  the  food  of  the 
soul.  He  was  not  anxious  where  to  lay  his  head, 
the  wherewithal  to  feed  his  mouth,  because  he  was 
well  aware  of  the  infinite  bountifulness  which  en- 
vironed him.  His  mendicancy  was  that  of  the 
fowls  of  the  air  and  the  lilies  of  the  field,  which  are 
fed  and  clothed  by  the  unseen  Arm  above  and 
underneath  the  earth.  His  poverty  was  the  bound- 
less affluence  which  has  ever  fed  the  humble  and 
poor  in   spirit.     Fed  with    the  Messianic   flesh   and 


THE    FASTING    CHRIST  65 

blood,  Christendom's  inner  wealth  and  strength 
scatter  truth,  while  other  religions  have  apparently- 
dwindled  down.  For  the  evanescent  bread  of  the 
flesh  that  perisheth,  Christ  could  not  be  turned  from 
the  living  word  of  God,  upon  which  humanity 
eternally  feeds.  "  Man  does  not  live  by  bread 
alone." 

TEMPTING    GOD. 

Self-sacrifice  may  sometimes  mean  mortification 
of  the  flesh.  But  mortification  of  the  flesh  does  not 
always  mean  self-sacrifice.  Religious  men  in  the 
East  have  a  tendency  to  become  heroes.  If  the 
aspirations  to  become  pious  once  seize  us  in  that 
part  of  the  world,  we  hate  reason  and  calculation 
in  every  form.  Fear  of  desperate  deeds  becomes 
almost  synonymous  with  infidelity.  Rashness,  reck- 
lessness, becomes  a  positive  passion.  Daring  courage 
takes  the  form  of  a  strong  love  for  physical  suffer- 
ing. A  disregard,  nay,  not  seldom,  the  hatred  of 
domestic  and  personal  relations,  becomes  meritorious. 
The  characteristics  of  the  devotee  are  austerity,  self- 
torture,  and  universal  causticity.  This  is  asceticism 
on  its  abnormal,  misused,  exaggerated  side.  It  is 
most  difficult  to  separate  arrogance  from  self-sacri- 
fice. Pride  creeps  into  the  holiest  and  humblest 
exercises   of    self-discipline.      It    is   the    supremest 


66  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

natures  only  that  escape  the  taint.  The  practice  of 
asceticism  therefore  is  always  attended  with  great 
danger.  Instead  of  abasing  self,  in  many  cases  it 
serves  the  opposite  end.  Fasting  produces  the  con- 
ceited consciousness  of  imposing  a  sort  of  indebted- 
ness upon  heaven.  The  anchorite  believes  himself^ 
and  is  believed  by  others,  to  be  able  to  work  miracles. 
There  is  an  incipient  wish  to  thrust  upon  God  the 
claims  of  man's  self-sacrificing  piety.  There  is  a 
semi-sceptical  desire  to  draw  largely  upon  the  omnip- 
otency  and  all-mercifulness  of  Providence,  and  thus 
put  its  sufficiency  to  a  severe  test.  The  devotee 
instinctively  wishes  to  produce  an  effect  upon  the 
world  by  the  startling  nature  of  his  self-imperilment. 
Dangers  and  miseries  are  courted,  formidable  risks 
are  run,  and  hair-breadth  escapes  are  made.  The 
world  beholds  these  signs,  and  applauds.  Here  is 
the  source  of  all  that  miserable  vanity  which  makes 
a  parade  of  spiritual  mysteries,  and  tries  to  make 
God  the  tool  of  man's  own  glorification.  Where  is 
that  sweet,  modest  reasonableness  of  true  piety 
which  shrinks  from  incurring  every  unsanctioned 
risk,  but  readily  pours  out  its  life-blood  like  water, 
when  called  upon  so  to  do  in  the  service  of  the 
heavenly  Father.''  If  the  rash  enterprises  into  which 
zealots  launch  with  a  view  to  their  own  distinction 


THE    FASTING    CHRIST  6/ 

were  analyzed  by  the  scrutiny  of  spiritual  insight, 
three-fourths  thereof  would  resolve  themselves  into 
an  impulse  to  hurl  themselves  from  mountain-tops, 
in  the  vain  hope  that  angels  would  minister  unto 
their  safety.  Every  form  of  self-invited  suffering 
is  not  acceptable  sacrifice  before  the  Lord,  every 
form  of  self-invited  death  is  not  martyrdom.  It  is 
often  nothing  more  than  a  foolish  desire  to  place 
Divine  Providence  under  a  trial  and  obligation,  and 
to  achieve  a  cheap  victory  over  the  laws  of  nature. 
Not  a  few  sincere  men,  who  would  otherwise  become 
models  of  spirituality,  thus  present  spectacles  of  con- 
fusion, disease,  uncleanliness,  and  abnormal  trouble. 
To  establish  a  sound,  sweet  harmony  between  strict 
self-denial,  true,  unworldly  spirituality,  and  a  wise, 
humble  obedience  to  the  laws  of  nature,  to  reconcile 
asceticism  with  a  wholesome  fear  of  God's  ways,  is 
the  problem  that  lies  before  the  religious  reformer.. 
But  so  wayward  is  our  nature  that,  when  we  are 
blessed  with  joy,  our  desire  for  increased  joy  becomes, 
insatiable,  and  we  begin  to  loathe  suffering  in  every 
form.  Contrariwise,  when  a  share  of  ordinary  suf- 
fering is  measured  out  to  us,  we  would  willingly 
court  more  suffering,  and  indulge  our  innate  arro- 
gance by  figuring  as  great  sufferers.  When,  there- 
fore, the   hungering  Christ   found   the  stones  were 


68  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

not  converted  into  loaves,  and  that  man  must  some- 
times feed  himself  internally  by  the  travails  of  the 
spirit,  the  natural  temptation  was  to  invite  more 
travail,  nay,  death  itself,  by  throwing  himself  from 
the  top  of  the  pinnacle  where  he  is  taken.  The 
pinnacle,  in  the  case  of  every  ordinary  man,  is  the 
height  of  his  own  self-consciousness.  Let  him  not 
hurl  himself,  when  thus  standing,  into  any  self- 
sought  achievement,  lest,  in  splitting  himself  on  a 
rock,  he  prove  that  he,  too,  is  made  of  the  common 
vulgar  clay.  As  for  the  fasting  Christ,  he  weighed 
well  the  iniquitous  importance  of  the  evil  sugges- 
tion. Scriptural  passages,  promises,  and  prophe- 
cies came  crowding  into  recollection,  that  supported 
the  plausible  temptation  :  "  It  is  written.  He  shall 
give  his  angels  charge  concerning  thee ;  and  in  their 
hands  they  shall  bear  thee  up,  lest  at  any  time  thou 
dash  thy  foot  against  a  stone."  Doubly  strong  as 
the  vainglorious  impulse  thus  became,  the  genius  of 
Jesus  rose  above  its  power.  He  could  distinguish 
between  the  impiety  of  self-sought  danger  and  the 
■dignity  of  God-appointed  crucifixion.  He  had  the 
power  of  discerning  between  sanctioned  and  un- 
sanctioned suffering.  And  he  cried  out  from  the 
depth  of  his  faith  and  wisdom,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
tempt  the    Lord,  thy  God."     Why  should  we  hurl 


THE    FASTING    CHRIST  69 

ourselves  from  mountain-tops  to  tickle  men's  fancy  ? 
Why  seek  to  gratify  the  spirit  of  arrogance  in  us, 
which  dares  to  impose  trials  upon  the  all-sufficiency 
of  the  Infinite  ?  He  that  tempts  God  easily  steps 
from  folly  to  infidelity.  Rather  let  the  spirit  of 
humility  and  submission  lead  us  to  face  every  cir- 
cumstance of  woe  and  peril  in  which  it  may  please 
our  Father  to  place  us  for  the  maturity  of  our  faith 
and  the  accomplishment  of  his  purpose.  That  con- 
stitutes the  privilege  of  sonship  and  faithful  service, 
wherein  unseen  angels  minister  and  watch  around 
us.  He  who  can  overcome  the  natural  temptations 
which  beset  him,  in  whatever  sphere  of  life  he  has 
chosen  for  himself,  can  safely  reckon  upon  the  help 
and  unfailing  grace  of  Heaven. 

HIM  ONLY  SHALT  THOU  SERVE. 

The  world  worships  the  supremely  gifted.  They 
do  not  worship  the  world  :  they  hold  it  in  slavery. 
But,  before  they  enslave  it  fully,  the  world  tries  to 
enslave  them.  The  test  of  true  genius  is  the  temp- 
tation of  worldly  dominion.  Hundreds  yield  them- 
selves to  it,  and  are  lost.  Hundreds  seek  it  in  vain, 
and,  in  the  absence  of  success,  pine  and  despond, 
and  disappear.  Nothing  chills  the  mind  so  much  as 
apparent  failure  :  nothing  exalts  and  encourages  all 
performance  like  success. 


70  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

Is  it  possible  that  genius  can  be  unconscious  of 
the  immense  results  producible  by  the  co-operation 
of  spiritual  and  earthly  influences  ?  The  practical 
form  which  such  a  consciousness  is  apt  to  take  con- 
stitutes a  strong  and  universal  temptation.  Worldly 
ascendency  and  rule,  severed  from  his  holy  calling, 
never  tempted  Christ.  His  nature,  glowing  with 
divinity,  would  be  impervious  to  the  love  of  wealth 
and  power  as  such.  But  the  kingdom  of  the  earth, 
as  supplementing  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  tried  his 
spirit.  To  the  sweet  soul  of  Jesus  never  belonged 
that  gloomy  type  of  locust-eating,  leather-girdled 
asceticism  which  abode  alone  in  desert  solitudes,  and 
denounced  sin,  sinners,  and  society  alike.  His  was 
the  asceticism  of  a  loving  service  to  God  and  man, 
that  gathered  all,  and  picked  out  the  good  points  in 
each.  He  was  mightily  conscious  of  his  powers  to 
lead,  found,  conquer,  command,  and  rule.  He  knew 
that  the  world  waited  but  for  his  word,  to  recognize 
him  as  its  king,  if  he  would  recognize  it  in  his  future 
course  of  action.  The  angels  and  evil  spirits  seemed 
willing  to  do  him  equal  homage :  heaven  and  earth 
seemed  to  abide  his  election.  The  world  worships 
power,  and  only  expects  to  be  led  by  the  competent 
leader,  when  he  arises.  Divinity,  on  the  other  hand, 
chooses  to  be  served  by  the  holiest  and  best.     Not 


THE    FASTING    CHRIST  7I 

that  the  unworthy  and  the  humble  have  their  offer- 
ings rejected  ;  but  service,  whether  it  comes  from 
the  strong  or  the  weak,  must  come  from  the  whole 
heart.  In  the  ever-shifting  scenes  of  life,  however, 
there  are  so  many  upper  and  lower  spheres  of  saintly 
activity,  so  many  aims  and  ambitions  that  revolve 
round  the  central  ideal,  that  whole-hearted  service 
to  God  grows  difficult  to  distinguish,  and  still  more 
to  carry  out  as  a  practical  reality. 

I  have  already  said  that  earthly  success  often 
seems  to  accelerate  spiritual  success.  The  san- 
guine, the  adventurous,  the  intelligent,  the  forcible 
characters  of  the  world  cannot  but  sometimes  see 
their  chance  and  opportunity.  A  comparison  be- 
tween the  service  of  God  with  and  without  worldly 
resources  is  inevitable  at  critical  moments  in  the  life 
of  him  who  is  going  to  devote  himself  forever,  as 
Christ  was,  in  the  forty  days  of  the  fast.  For  a  brief 
period,  the  devotee  is  apt  to  be  unsettled  in  the 
course  of  his  future  action,  considering  the  worldly 
prospects  he  could  master,  the  fair  realms  of  univer- 
sal sovereignty  spread  invitingly  before  the  dazzled 
view.  The  world  claims  but  a  tacit  submission,  a 
little  mental  compromise,  a  mere  attitude  of  defer- 
ence, and  the  joys  of  this  world  chime  in  with  the 
joys  of  the  next,  to  make  the  prospect  of  happiness 


72  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

complete.  Not  a  few  of  the  predecessors  of  Jesus 
were  carried  away  by  this  view,  preaching  religion, 
seeking  power.  The  most  ancient  writings  and 
sacred  traditions  of  the  land  held  out  promises  to 
that  effect.  The  tendencies,  wants,  and  beliefs  of 
the  age  were  ripe  for  their  fulfilment ;  and,  mount- 
ing the  summit  of  his  powers  and  self-consciousness, 
Jesus  saw  the  outstretched  kingdom  of  the  earth  at 
his  feet.  For  a  moment,  he  was  staggered  ;  but  it 
was  only  for  a  moment.  He  instantly  perceived,  in 
the  illumination  of  his  resplendent  genius,  the  eternal 
distinction  between  worldly  and  spiritual  kingdom. 
The  equilibrium  of  the  spirit  returned  with  tenfold 
strength.  He  instinctively  saw  it  was  Satan,  in 
the  garb  of  worldly  power,  persuading  him  to  divide 
his  loyalty  to  his  God.  He  was  pierced  with  pain  at 
the  thought  of  serving  any  one  but  his  Father.  He 
burned  with  indignation  at  the  thought  of  sharing 
his  life's  work  between  heaven  and  earth.  He 
clearly  ascribed  this  thought  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  genius  of  evil,  and  uttered  those  fiery  words  of 
scorn,  "Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan ;  for  it  is  written, 
Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord,  thy  God,  and  him  only 
shalt  thou  serve."  These  words  derive  their  full 
meaning  when  their  utterance  emanates  from  a  tow- 
ering genius  like  that  of  Jesus,  who,  if   he  chose. 


THE    FASTING    CHRIST  73 

could  seize  the  mastery  of  the  whole  world.  In 
forming  and  uttering  this  resolution,  he  was  thrown 
upon  the  resources  of  his  unaided  will.  Neither  the 
voice  of  God,  nor  the  service  of  angels  helped  him. 
His  selection  of  absolute  devotedness  was  his  alone. 
He  devoted  the  undivided  loyalty  and  the  undivided 
service  of  his  whole  being  and  character  to  his  God ; 
and,  when  he  scorned  to  make  the  least  compromise,, 
even  to  gain  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  world, 
then  divine  grace  encircled  him  in  its  infinite  em- 
brace, evil  and  delusion  of  that  kind  left  him  for- 
ever, his  trials  ended,  and  "  angels  ministered  unto 
him." 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  PRAYING  CHRIST. 

/"^HRIST  prayed.  He  prayed  often.  He  prayed 
always.  Did  he  not  pray  the  whole  night 
long.?  For  days  together.?  My  soul  longs  to  realize 
the  state  of  mind  in  which  Christ  prayed.  What 
were  the  thoughts,  what  were  the  words,  he  addressed 
to  the  Father,  when  he  went  to  those  mountain  tops.-* 
Has  man  ever  spoken  as  he  spoke  to  heaven.? 
They  watched  him  from  a  distance  as  he  prayed, 
and  so  strange  did  he  seem  while  praying  that,  when 
he  ceased,  they  approached  him  in  humble  awe,  and 
said,  "Lord,  teach  us  to  pray."  Christ  not  only 
prayed,  but  he  was  prayer.  Prayer  was  incarnated 
in  him.  They  sazv  prayer,  when  they  beheld  Jesus 
praying;  for,  "  as  he  prayed,  the  fashion  of  his  coun- 
tenance was  altered,  and  his  raiment  became  white 
and  glittering."  The  mystic  devotional  syllable  is 
said  in  the  Veda  to  have  invested  the  face  and  beard 
of  the  primeval  utterer  with  a  golden  glory.  The 
true  word  of  prayer  is  changed  from  glory  to  glory. 


THE    PRAYING    CHRIST  75 

from  the  inner  to  the  outer  glory.  The  countenance 
of  the  Christlike  man  while  praying  is  the  counte- 
nance of  God.  The  light  of  the  ages  and  the  calm- 
ness of  the  spheres  sit  upon  his  brow.  Prayer  be- 
comes the  fashion  of  the  eye,  and  the  expression 
of  the  countenance.  Prayer  becomes  the  pure  lus- 
trous drapery  of  the  body  and  mind.  Hidden  spirit- 
uality is  revealed.  It  is  not  the  words  so  much  as 
the  attitude  that  reveals  the  secret  spirituality  of 
prayer.  And  thus  Christ  revealed  prayer.  Christ 
revealed  the  laws  of  prayer.  His  was  the  revelation 
of  the  true  attitude  of  prayer.  It  matters  little  if 
his  actual  words  have  not  come  down  to  us.  It 
matters  not  if  such  as  have  come  down  do  not  sat- 
isfy us,  so  that  we  wish  to  know  more.  He  has 
bequeathed  to  us  the  spirit  of  prayer.  And  that 
spirit  fructifies  according  to  the  endless  variety  and 
potency  of  human  nature.  These  fruits  abound  in 
the  lives  of  all  the  children  of  Christ.  He  prayed 
without  ceasing.  From  the  moment  of  his  baptism 
to  the  awful  moment  when  he  committed  his  soul 
into  the  hands  of  the  Father  on  the  cross,  did  he 
not  continually  look  up  ?  He  looked  up  to  heaven 
for  light,  strength,  and  guidance.  And  what  is 
prayer  but  looking  up  ?  But  his  continued  prayer- 
fulness  did  not  prevent  him  from   approaching  the 


'j6  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

presence  of  the  Father  at  all  special  seasons.  He 
prayed  at  his  baptism  while  in  the  flowing  streams 
of  Jordan.  Praying,  "  the  heavens  opened,  and  the 
Spirit  descended  upon  him."  And  from  that  day, 
whenever  the  Christlike  man  prays,  the  heavens 
open  and  the  Spirit  descends.  And  then,  after  his 
baptism,  the  Spirit  led  him  to  the  wilderness,  there 
to  fast  and  pray  and  prepare  himself  for  his  minis- 
try. Can  there  be  true  preparation  for  the  sol- 
emn work  of  life  and  death  without  prayer  }  And 
when,  by  his  severe,  long-continued  prayer  of  forty 
days,  he  was  blessed  with  the  approbation  of  God 
and  the  angels  as  to  his  future  mission,  he  came 
down  to  the  field  of  work.  But  he  could  not  work 
alone.  Who  were  to  be  his  fellow-laborers .''  And 
"so  he  went  out  to  a  mountain  to  pray,  and  con- 
tinued all  night  in  prayer  to  God.  And,  when  it  was 
day,  he  called  unto  him  his  disciples  ;  and  of  them 
he  chose  twelve,  whom  he  also  named  apostles." 
His  apostles,  predestined  like  himself  in  the  eternal 
purposes  of  God,  called  and  elected,  were  pointed 
out  to  him  in  long  solitary  prayer ;  and  he  had  only 
to  name  and  adopt  them.  While  about  to  engage 
himself  in  the  arduous  responsibilities  of  his  ministry, 
whether  it  was  to  heal  the  sin-struck  and  sorrowful, 
or  to  feed   the  multitude  with   the  bread  of  life,  or 


THE    PRAYING    CHRIST  "JJ 

to  raise  the  dead  and  inert  from  the  grave  of  spiritual 
ruin,  did  he  not  go  "  into  the  wilderness  and  pray  "  ? 
Did  he  not  "lift  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,"  "sigh  to 
God,"  and  "give  thanks"  ? 

Aye,  his  great  miracles  of  cure,  precept,  and 
reform,  were  first  wrought  in  himself  through  the 
holy  mystery  of  sympathy  and  prayer,  and  then 
manifested  by  him  to  the  world  as  testimonies  of 
the  grace  and  power  which  the  Father  had  com- 
mitted into  his  hands.  And,  with  the  generous,  self- 
humiliating  impulse  of  his  strange  love,  he  promised 
that  "  greater  works  than  these  shall  ye  do,  because 
I  go  to  my  Father."  Thus  praying,  laboring,  and 
teaching,  when  the  three  short  years  expired,  and 
the  last  melancholy  evening  of  his  public  ministry 
came,  after  he  had  performed  the  sad  ceremony 
of  offering  unto  his  apostles  the  last  sacrament, 
washed  their  feet  with  his  own  hands,  taught  them, 
warned  them,  consoled  them, —  once  more  "he  lifted 
up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and  said,  Father,  the  hour  is 
come,  glorify  thy  son."  That  is  a  long,  marvellous 
prayer, —  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John;  and 
deeply  does  it  describe  the  relations  which  in  all 
previous  prayers  he  had  laid  down  between  himself 
and  his  God  on  the  one  hand,  between  himself  and 
his  apostles  on    the   other.     If  prayer  means  unity 


78  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

with  the  spirit  of  God  and  the  power  over  all  flesh, 
if  prayer  means  unity  with  the  kindred  spirits  of 
God's  children,  to  whom  we  are  brought  to  fulfil  his 
purposes,  surely  this  was  the  prayer  of  prayers. 
And  I  need  only  refer  to  his  marvellous  prayers  of 
forgiveness  and  self-consecration  on  the  cross,  to 
prove  that  Jesus  lived  and  died  in  prayer.  Whether 
healing  or  teaching,  walking,  meditating,  or  suffering, 
speaking  or  silent,  he  continually  moved  in  the 
atmosphere  of  prayer.  Those  who  approached  him 
while  he  was  alive,  and  those  who  approach  him  in 
spirit  now,  breathe  that  holy,  healthful  atmosphere. 
In  breathing  that  atmosphere,  I  have,  like  others, 
often  meditated  on  the  law  which  combines  its  dif- 
ferent elements.  His  unspeakable  faith  and  depend- 
ence, which  made  him  look  up  to  heaven  so  often; 
his  love  and  obedience,  which  made  the  purpose  of 
God  an  invisible  law  unto  him,  his  perpetual  seek- 
ing of  divine  strength,  light,  and  guidance, —  made 
up  for  him  that  heaven  of  prayerfulness  in  which 
his  soul  lived  night  and  day.  The  unity  of  will  with 
will,  deepened  by  faith,  love,  and  obedience,  made  his 
prayers  natural  and  incessant.  Such  prayer  made 
his  activity  instantaneous,  and  that  activity  was 
crowned  with  the  miracles  of  success.  His  whole 
character  was  composed  of  these  elements,  every  one 


THE    PRAYING    CHRIST  79 

of  which  is  a  law  in  prayer.  Faith,  dependence, 
love,  obedience,  self-surrender,  and  the  unity  and 
activity  of  will, —  these  constitute  the  laws  and  spirit 
of  prayer.  Some  men  pray  for  what  they  feel  no 
need,  and  a  great  many  pray  for  what  they  have  no 
belief  in.  They  are  very  few  who  have  real  confi- 
dence in  the  efificacy  of  their  supplications.  Yet, 
without  implicit,  absolute  trust  in  the  healing  power 
of  God,  how  can  the  ailments  of  the  soul  be  cured } 
Faith  is  the  first  law  of  prayer,  and  puts  the  mind 
in  a  fit  mood  to  receive  spiritual  help.  The  attitude 
of  up-looking  faith  is  the  chief  medium  through 
which  the  mind  of  God  can  be  poured  into  the 
devotee's  mind.  By  the  vision  of  instinctive  trust, 
the  praying  Jesus  first  beheld  what  was  in  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Father,  and  then  prayed  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  that  purpose.  In  our  blind  ignorance  of 
that,  how  often  do  we  pray  that  the  very  opposite 
of  divine  will  be  done  ?  Prayer  without  faith  degen- 
erates into  objectless  routine,  or  soulless  hypocrisy. 
Prayer  with  faith  brings  Omnipotence  to  back  our 
petition.  Better  not  pray  until  you  are  in  real 
serious  need  of  a  thing,  better  not  pray  unless  and 
until  your  whole  being  respond  to  the  efficacy  of 
your  supplication.  When  the  true  prayer  is 
breathed,  earth  and  heaven,  the  past  and  future, 
say  Amen.     And  Christ  prayed  such  prayers. 


So  THE    ORIENTAL    CFIRIST 

The  sacred  law  of  prayer  is  dependence.  Men's 
prayers  are  much  oftener  dictates  than  supplications. 
They  would  ask  Heaven  for  aid,  but  would  not  wait 
for  an  answer,  or  they  would  have  their  prayers 
answered  by  their  own  ways  and  means.  Jesus  de- 
pended, his  whole  religion  was  dependence.  What 
the  Spirit  taught  him  that  he  taught  the  world. 
Whither  the  Spirit  led  him,  there  he  went.  He 
threw  himself,  as  it  were,  into  the  appointed 
machinery  of  divine  arrangements  ;  and  a  special 
providence  was  looked  forward  to  by  him  in  every 
event.  Simple  as  a  child,  he  breathed  his  wants, 
and  then  knew  no  more  than  to  depend  on  the 
Father.  Dependence  upon  the  bountifulness  of 
God  is  the  natural  result  of  true  trust,  and  the 
two  together  form  the  strength  and  simplicity  of 
religious  character. 

Yet  faith  and  dependence  are  impossible  without 
love.  Trust  becomes  the  easiest  and  most  sponta- 
neous thing  when  there  is  love.  The  highest  law 
of  prayer,  therefore,  is  the  love  of  God.  The  true 
poetry  of  spiritual  utterances  comes  from  the  ten- 
derness of  the  devotee's  heart.  It  gives  wings  and 
inspiration  to  faith,  it  crowns  dependence  with  the 
heavenliness  of  humanity,  it  brings  down  showers 
of  grace,  and  obtains  immediate  response  from  the 


THE    PRAYING    CHRIST  8l 

bosom  of  God.  The  secret  of  the  mystery  of 
Christ's  prayerfulness  was  his  all-piercing  love. 
Whoso  therefore  prays,  let  him  pray  with  love. 
Truly,  in  prayer,  as  in  all  other  spiritual  exercises, 
love  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  law. 

The  fourth  law  of  prayer  is  strict  and  particular 
obedience  to  the  commandments  of  duty.  The 
ceaselessly  praying  Christ  was  also  ceaseless  in  his 
labors  to  do  good  to  all,  so  much  so  that  practical 
usefulness  has  often  been  identified  with  the  life  of 
the  Messiah.  Obedience  to  the  laws  of  life  laid 
down  by  the  Spirit  is  the  only  means  by  which  man 
can  hasten  the  fulfilment  of  his  supplications.  By 
holy  and  incessant  work  only  can  we  have  any  in- 
sight into  the  secrets  of  successful  life.  That  obe- 
dience in  Jesus  amounted  to  absolute  and  uncon- 
ditioned self-sacrifice.  His  will  merged  into  the  will 
of  God. 

The  very  name  of  Christ  calls  these  realities  of 
character  into  the  believer's  mind.  In  the  mystical 
theology  of  the  Hindu,  what  distinction  is  there  be- 
tween the  name  and  the  spirit  .-•  The  name  and  the 
essence  are  one,  and  the  bare  mention  of  the  one 
awakens  all  the  underlying  virtues  of  the  other. 
"Whatsoever  therefore  ye  ask  in  my  name  "  carries 
with  it  the  hidden  and  profound  significance  of  char- 


82  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

acter.  Unless  therefore  one  is  purified  by  shedding 
sympathetic  blood  over  the  emblem  of  Calvary,  and 
risen  with  the  resurrection  of  the  Son  of  Man,  how- 
dare  he  ask  anything  in  the  name  of  Christ  ?  Will 
crying,  "Lord,  Lord,"  avail  on  that  day  when  the 
commandments  about  self-denial,  crucifixion  of  the 
flesh,  faith,  love  to  man,  asceticism,  and  seeking 
first  the  kingdom  of  God,  are  set  at  defiance?  And 
when  one  has  kept  these  sayings,  conformed  to  their 
spirit,  and  like  a  wise  man  built  his  house  upon  a 
rock,  need  he  be  bound  to  an  endless  repetition  of 
the  letter  of  Christ's  name,  and  to  holding  the 
dogma  of  his  technical  intercession,  in  the  face  of 
his  own  declaration,  "I  say  not  unto  you  that  I  will 
pray  the  Father  for  you,  for  the  Father  himself 
loveth  you "  ?  True  intercession,  then,  means  the 
reception  of  this  spirit  of  Jesus  ;  and  praying  in  his 
name  means  prayer  in  that  spirit. 

Prayer,  viewed  closely,  is  a  deep  mystery.  How 
can  man's  supplications  change  the  purposes  of  the 
Liimutable .''  How  can  divine  foreknowledge  be 
influenced  by  the  petitions  of  little-sighted  human- 
ity .''  The  praying  Christ  is  the  solution  of  the 
deep  mystery  of  prayer.  His  unity  of  will  with  the 
Father,  his  poverty,  his  faith,  his  love,  his  patience, 
his  self-surrender  and  obedience,  prove  that  all  the 


THE    PRAYING    CHRIST  8$ 

change  is  in  man  and  not  in  God.  It  proves  that 
prayer  calls  out  all  the  best  that  there  is  in  us.  It  is 
the  foreknowing  purpose  of  God,  that  ordained  and 
created  out  of  itself  in  us  the  character  of  Christ, 
in  order  that  the  law  of  prayer  may  mean  the  union 
of  spirit  with  spirit.  And  does  not  this  union  inten- 
sify all  our  energies,  all  our  emotions,  all  our  deepest 
wants,  and  highest  aspirations  ?  A  man  beholds  him- 
self at  his  best  when  he  prays.  He  realizes  his 
whole  future.  He  is  incarnated  to  himself  in  his  own 
destiny.  The  past  in  the  shape  of  its  prophets,  the 
future  in  the  shape  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  surround 
us  when  we  pray.  Oh  that,  like  Christ,  we  always 
remained  what  we  are  during  our  prayers ! 

Having  said  so  much,  I  will  only  conclude  with  a 
few  words  on  the  model  prayer  of  Christ.  I  consider 
it  to  be  a  marvellous  utterance.  Many  consider  it 
deficient  in  passion.  To  me,  it  has  the  calm,  hushed 
unimpassionateness  of  the  whole  world's  future. 
Not  a  sentence  of  that  prayer  has  been  exhausted  in 
two  thousand  years.  How  many  thousand  years  will 
search  its  heights  and  depths  !  The  more  I  gain  in. 
faith  and  lose  in  self,  the  more  grows  upon  me  the 
tranquil  majesty  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  "  Our  Father 
which  art  in  heaven  "  unites  all  mankind  in  the  two- 
fold  bond  of   filial  and  fraternal  love.     "  Hallowed 


84  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

be  thy  name"  concentrates  all  the  essence  of  wor- 
ship, holy  hymn,  and  pious  utterance.  "Thy  king- 
dom come "  involves  the  prayer  and  effort  of  all 
religious  dispensations.  "Thy  will  be  done  on  earth 
as  it  is  in  heaven "  includes  every  aspiration  after 
personal  and  social  morality,  and  represents  the 
practical  application  of  the  foregoing  prayer.  The 
entire  teaching  of  faith,  resignation,  and  asceticism, 
with  which  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  full,  finds 
expression  in  the  simple,  childlike  petition  of  "  Give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread."  The  model  prayer 
condenses  its  universal  magnitude  into  a  pathetic, 
personal  character,  when  the  Father  is  asked  to 
"forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive  those  who 
trespass  against  us."  And  this  culminates  in  the 
supplication,  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
deliver  us  from  evil."  These  seven  prayers  fit  into 
each  other  like  component  parts  of  a  finished  piece 
of  mechanism.  They  suit  all  races,  all  ages,  all 
stages  of  personal  and  national  progress.  From  the 
grandest  to  the  humblest  aspirations  of  humanity, 
they  embody  all,  they  represent  everything.  Each 
one  of  them  can  be  separated  into  ten  thousand 
prayers,  each  prayer  equally  real,  equally  sweet. 
Yes,  the  Lord's  Prayer  was  the  essence  of  Christ's 
prayerfulness.     It  was  his  inner,  intense  life,  poured 


THE    PRAYING    CHRIST  8$ 

out  into  audible  supplication.  His  utterances,  his 
thoughts,  his  attitudes,  his  life,  and  his  death, 
moulded  into  a  model  for  all  men  to  fall  into,  con- 
stitute the  Lord's  Prayer. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE   TEACHING    CHRIST. 

"DESIDE  the  coast  of  Cassarea  Philippi,  behold 
the  teaching  Christ.  He  blesses  Simon  on 
the  shady  hillside  for  recognizing  him  as  "the  Son 
of  the  Living  God."  For  the  beauty  and  power  of 
his  blessed  precepts,  some  called  him  Elias,  others 
Jeremias,  some  called  him  John,  or  one  of  the  elder 
prophets  come  to  life  again.  But  Jesus  was  not 
anxious  to  be  discerned  by  the  outside  world.  For 
the  right  recognition  of  that  little  world  of  souls 
which  he  had  been  slowly  forming  around  him,  he 
was  truly  anxious.  His  whole  soul  burst  out  into 
a  shower  of  benedictions  when,  for  the  first  time, 
they  greeted  him  as  the  Son  of  God. 

It  has  been  sometimes  asked,  What  was  new  in 
Christ's  teaching.^  I  answer  that  question  by  ask- 
ing. For  what  offence  did  they  destroy  Christ  .-*  Was 
it  not  because  he  called  himself  the  Son  of  God  ? 
That  which  caused  his  delight  caused  also  his  death. 
Because  the  Scriptures  say,  as  soon  as  the  recogni- 


THE  TEACHING   CHRIST  8/ 

tion  came  from  Peter,  he  charged  his  disciples  to 
tell  no  man  that  he  was  the  Christ,  and  foretold  the 
sufferings  and  death  which  would  inevitably  result 
from  the  fact  being  known.  The  distinctive  posi- 
tion, then,  which  Christ  meant  to  occupy  as  a 
teacher,  was  that  of  the  Son  of  God.  Prophetic 
teachings  agree  in  the  main.  Yet  each  great  teacher 
has  his  distinctive  truth  to  deliver.  Competing 
trades  and  sects  of  religion  hurl  at  each  other  the 
charge  of  selling  stale  articles.  The  mutual  scorn- 
ful challenge  is,  "Produce  the  credentials  of  a.ny  new 
truth  that  you  may  possess."  As  if  all  freshness 
and  vigor  had  forsaken  God's  world,  as  if  the  king- 
dom of  the  Spirit  were  a  dull  small  circle  endlessly 
repeating  itself  !  Why  is  the  New  Testament  new  ? 
Its  teachings  of  faith,  self-sacrifice,  unselfish  love, 
and  spiritual  holiness  have  their  parallel  elsewhere. 
What  is  unparalleled  in  the  New  Testament  is  the 
simple  unique  teaching  that  Christ  is  the  Son  of  the 
Living  God.  To  us  in  the  East  the  son  is  the  sub- 
stance, the  part,  nay,  the  essentials  of  the  father 
reborn  in  the  flesh.  The  son  is  the  inheritor,  the 
regenerator,  nay,  the  saviour  of  the  father,  the  repro- 
ducer of  the  character  and  virtues  of  the  race.  The 
father's  existence  is  ineffectual,  and  his  destiny  is 
oblivion.     There  is  no  heaven  for  him,  but  the  na- 


88  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

raka  of  childlessness,  if  he  cannot  perpetuate  him- 
self in  the  son.  The  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of 
Man  mean  to  me  one  and  the  same  thing.  The 
substance  of  God  in  man  is  the  inheritor,  repro- 
ducer, and  regenerator  of  humanity. 

"  The  best  expression  of  creation,"  says  Keshub, 
"so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  trace,  is  sonship. 
The  last  manifestation  of  divinity  is  divine  humanity. 
Having  exhibited  itself  in  endless  varieties  of  pro- 
gressive existence,  the  primary  Creative  Force  at 
last  took  the  form  of  the  Son  in  Christ  Jesus.  Can 
God  create  v^^ithout  a  purpose .''  Merely  supplying 
a  pattern  could  not  be  the  be-all  and  end-all  of  crea- 
tion. Where  millions  perished  in  disobedience  and 
sin,  of  what  avail  was  the  appearance  of  a  single 
instance  of  obedient  sonship }  All,  all  required  to 
be  saved.  If  sonship  there  was,  it  was  bound  to 
develop  itself  not  in  one  solitary  individual,  but  in 
all  humanity.  .  .  .  Look  at  the  clear  triangular  figure 
with  the  eye  of  faith,  and  study  its  deep  mathema- 
tics. The  apex  is  the  very  God  Jehovah,  the  Supreme 
Brahma  of  the  Vedas.  Alone  in  his  unmanifested 
glory  he  dwells.  From  him  comes  down  the  Son  in 
a  direct  line,  an  emanation  from  divinity.  Thus 
God  reaches  one  end  of  the  base  of  humanity,  runs 
along  the   base,  overspreading  and   influencing  the 


THE    TEACHING    CHRIST  89 

world,  and  then,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
drags  up  regenerated  humanity  to  himself.  The 
Father  coming  down  to  humanity  is  the  Son.  The 
Father  carrying  up  humanity  to  heaven  is  the  Holy 
Ghost.  This  is  the  whole  philosophy  of  salvation." 
Christ  then,  as  the  Son  of  God,  was  the  manifesta- 
tion of  divine  character  in  humanity.  The  unattain- 
able infinity  of  the  Supreme  Godhead  forbids  definite 
comprehension,  and  makes  practical  imitation  impos- 
sible. We  can  meditate  upon  and  adore  his  glorious 
attributes.  We  can  wonder  and  bend  before  his  all- 
compelling  Presence.  In  communion  and  transcen- 
dental Samadhi,  we  can  feel  absorbed  in  his  blessed 
nature  and  intense  light.  His  peace  goeth  forward 
before  us,  and  stilleth  everything  within  and  around. 
But  what  does  all  that  avail,  if  our  character  is  dis- 
similar to  his,  and  if,  in  our  deeds,  thoughts,  wishes, 
and  practical  purposes,  we  tread  in  other  courses 
than  those  appointed  by  his  holy  will  and  eternal 
wisdom  .-*  Some  one  must  sJlow  tis  the  way  to  tJiis^ 
else  all  piety  is  unreal  and  immoral.  Religion  be- 
comes the  incoherent  dream  of  the  purblind  enthu- 
siast. David  commits  unpardonable  crimes  during 
the  respites  of  his  intermittent  inspiration.  Jud- 
histir  publishes  a  half-uttered  falsehood.  Moses 
murders  an  Egyptian  taskmaster.      Mohammed  pro- 


90  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

claims  a  bloody  war.  And  Sakya  Muni  omits  to 
lay  down  the  doctrine  of  God.  Who  but  the  Eternal 
himself  can  reveal  his  character  in  relation  to  man  ? 
That  character  descends  in  Christ  for  the  enlighten- 
ment, conversion,  regeneration,  and  adoption  of  all 
men.  Therefore,  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Son  of  Man  alike.  He  is  the  Way,  the  Word  made 
flesh,  the  true  Light  that  lighteth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world.  The  teachings  of  Christ  are 
many,  but  they  are  only  such  as  guide  all  men  to 
be  the  sons  of  God.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  had 
been  a  traditional  and  prophetic  idea,  familiar  long 
before  Jesus  had  begun  to  preach  it.  But  Christ's 
kingdom  was  the  kingdom  of  sonship.  What  per- 
sonal and  spiritual  excellences  does  not  obedient 
sonship  include  ?  Purity  and  morality  are  inculcated 
by  the  Mosaic,  and  by  every  other  system  of  ethical 
law,  but  the  utter  crucifixion  of  the  flesh  and  the 
reborn  life  of  the  spirit  laid  down  by  Christ  is  the 
perfection  of  humanity  as  it  exists  in  the  Father  in 
heaven.  The  enthusiasm  of  love  which  compels 
submission  and  welcomes  suffering  and  death  only 
because  it  is  conformable  not  to  one's  own  will,  but 
the  will  of  the  Father,  is  nothing  but  the  unquestion- 
ing affectionateness  of  an  ideal  son.  The  faith  and 
childlike  trust  that  finds  no  inclination  to  think  of 


THE    TEACHING    CHRIST  9I 

the  morrow,  but  depends  upon  the  Father  for  every- 
thing necessary  for  the  well-being  of  this  world  and 
the  next,  is  the  self-assuring  and  self-rewarding 
reliance  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  law  of  meekness, 
the  law  of  forgiveness,  the  law  of  philanthropy,  the 
law  of  resentment,  of  self-purification,  of  faith,  of 
self-sacrifice,  were  included  in  the  supreme  truth  of 
sonship  which  Christ  claimed  for  himself  and  all 
those  who  believed  in  him.  Therefore,  it  may  be 
said  that  Christ  did  not  come  to  teach  faith,  or  love, 
or  morality,  or  piety,  but  that  all  these  virtues,  and 
countless  others,  were  involved  in  the  doctrine  of 
spiritual  sonship  which,  above  all  things,  he  taught, 
and  has  left  behind  him.  It  enfolds  within  itself  as 
an  eternal  potency  the  very  source  of  the  law-making 
faculty  in  human  nature  which  adapts  its  moral 
deliverances  to  every  occasion  of  duty  and  trial  as 
it  arises.  Does  not  Jesus  promise  many  more  won- 
derful things  to  the  productive  faith  of  his  disciples 
than  he  himself  worked  ?  The  Holy  Spirit  whom 
he  bequeathed  to  humanity  would,  he  knew,  suffice 
for  all  truth,  all  precept,  all  moral  requirement. 
Christ  teaches  not  as  a  philosopher,  but  as  one 
having  authority  from  above.  There  is  the  teacher 
who  teacheth  many  things, —  every  rule  of  life  and 
every  detail  of  conduct.     There  is  also  the  teacher 


92  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

who  saith  little,  teaching  only  that  by  learning  which 
a  man  may  instinctively  do  what  is  right  and  good. 
Lessons  are  endless,  the  spirit  of  man  is  one  ;  and, 
when  the  spirit  is  full  of  light,  every  part  of  life 
shineth  out. 

The  mission  of  the  true  teacher  is,  therefore,  to 
teach  only  what  kindles  the  spirit  in  man,  and  leave 
everything  else  to  the  man  himself.  Now,  three 
things  kindle  the  spirit, —  the  first  of  which  is  Love. 
Call  it  enthusiasm,  or  charity,  or  passion,  or  piety,  or 
devotion,  or  Bhakti,  the  essence  of  it  all  is  the  same, 
—  that  mysterious  faculty  which  is  called  by  the 
name  of  love.  It  is  the  key  to  all  earthly  and  heav- 
enly life :  its  uses  and  abuses  form  a  marvellous 
study.  The  Son  of  Man  has  condensed  all  truth  in 
the  teaching  that  the  love  of  God  is  the  first  law,  and 
the  love  of  man  is  the  second  ;  and  they  exhaust  all 
the  laws  and  prophets.  The  second  thing  that  kin- 
dles the  spirit  is  Faith.  It  is  the  eye  of  the  soul, 
the  faculty  of  light  which  discerns  the  dark  secrets 
of  the  soul  and  of  God,  proves  the  realities  of  our 
earthly  abode,  and  the  heavenly  kingdom  which  the 
world  continually  denies  and  disproves.  It  is  the 
magic  which  transforms  impending  failure  into  abso- 
lute success,  which  has  given  humble  men  victory 
over  the  mighty  and  the  great,  which  alone  unlocks 


THE   TEACHING    CHRIST  93 

the  gates  of  truth  in  human  nature.  The  third  thing 
which  kindles  the  heart  is  HoHness.  As  there  is  a 
passion  of  love  in  man,  so  there  is  a  passion  of  sanc- 
tity. Holiness  means  the  enthusiasm  of  perfection 
as  it  exists  in  the  blessed  nature  of  the  All-holy. 
This  holiness,  on  its  negative  side,  includes  morality, 
which  is  but  the  completion  of  self-restraint,  but,  on 
its  positive  side,  means  perpetual  advancement  in 
motive,  feeling,  wish,  and  thought  to  the  oneness  of 
will  with  God.  Holiness  opens  a  new  order  of 
being  to  the  man  of  common  impulses,  and  is  inex- 
pressibly higher  than  mere  deeds.  It  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  all  command,  the  accomplishment  of  the  law 
of  obedience  in  conscious  sonship.  The  sum  of  this 
threefold  teaching  is  humanity.  It  includes  every 
beatitude  and  every  virtue.  It  is  higher  than  mo- 
rality, higher  than  theology,  higher  than  religion, 
higher  than  philanthropy,  because  this  humanity  is 
the  perennial  fountain  from  which  all  wisdoms,  all 
benevolences,  all  pieties,  spring  from  age  to  age. 
Humanity,  then,  in  faith,  love,  and  holiness,  concen- 
trates the  whole  spirit  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
Half  of  it  is  composed  of  the  love  of  God,  and  the 
other  half  of  the  love  of  man.  The  secret  fastins: 
and  prayer;  the  meekness,  gentleness,  rejoicing  amid 
persecution    and   pain ;    the    reliance    and    childlike 


94  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

trust, —  are  all  but  sparks  from  the  flame  kindled  by 
the  filial  love  for  God.  The  forgiveness,  the  charity, 
the  active  service,  the  peace-making,  the  blessing  for 
curses,  the  non-resistance  of  evil,  are  but  the  results 
of  the  genuine  love  of  man.  The  whole  life  of  the 
Messiah  was  one  continued  acting  out  of  this  double- 
natured  love. 

One  most  characteristic  teaching  of  Jesus  is 
taking  "no  thought  for  the  morrow."  The  whole 
structure  of  the  resignation,  dependence,  trust,  and 
asceticism,  so  natural  to  the  people  of  the  East,  is 
raised  upon  this  inculcation  of  faith.  Faith  is  the 
corner-stone  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  It  is  the  light 
of  the  body,  the  singleness  of  the  eye,  the  power  of 
perception  of  all  spiritual  realities.  It  is  the  secret 
of  all  miracles,  all  healing,  even  the  raising  to  life 
of  the  dead.  He  exalts  his  precepts  to  the  culminat- 
ing point,  "  Be  ye  perfect,  as  your  Father  in  heaven 
is  perfect."  Here,  love  and  faith  ripen  into  holiness. 
The  purity  of  the  body,  the  deeper  purity  of  the 
mind,  the  absolute  renunciation  of  anger,  lust,  and 
covetousness,  the  doing  of  all  that  is  good,  the  suf- 
fering of  all  wrong,  constitute  "  the  strait  gate  and 
narrow  way  which  leadeth  unto  life."  This  is  the 
holiness  which  ought  to  be  laid  up  "  as  treasure  in 
heaven,  where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt," 


THE    TEACHING    CHRIST  95 

This,  then,  is  the  sum  of  what  Christ  teaches  as 
constituting  humanity,  or  true  sonship.  But,  if  he 
teaches  humanity,  does  he  not  also  teach  divinity  ? 
Almost  to  his  dying  moment,  he  taught  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  in  every  man, —  nay,  he  left  that 
truth  as  the  all-sui^cing  legacy  to  his  disciples.  Try- 
ing to  realize  that  Spirit  in  himself,  he  felt  he  and 
his  Father  were  one.  Trying  to  realize  it  in  his 
disciples,  he  felt  that  he  was  in  them  and  they  in 
him.  This  divinity  descended  into  him  in  such 
measure  that  he  said,  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father."  Thus,  God  can  be  seen  in  man. 
Is  the  Eternal,  then,  to  be  approached  and  thought 
of  as  a  man  thinks  of  a  man  ?  He  is  awful,  incon- 
ceivable, inimitably  great  and  glorious.  Who  can 
find  him,  hold  him,  or  utter  him  ?  All  philosophies, 
all  scriptures,  meditation,  worship,  and  song  stand 
hushed  and  abashed  in  his  presence.  No  :  the  In- 
finite is  not  man,  but  he  is  exceedingly  manlike. 
Not  in  body,  for  God  is  a  pure  spirit,  but  in  nature 
and  in  soul.  Unlike  us  in  his  immensity  and  un- 
speakable glory,  in  the  unapproachable  heights  and 
unimaginable  varieties  of  his  being,  he  is  exceed- 
ingly like  us  in  those  graces  and  blessed  spiritual 
gifts  with  which  he  has  filled  our  inner  being.  Be- 
cause man's  soul  is  exactly  made  in  the  divine  image,. 


96  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

therefore  to  know  our  true  nature  is  to  know  as 
much  of  the  Infinite  as  can  be  known  on  earth. 
The  man  of  mere  flesh  and  blood  is  so  very  unlike 
the  truly  spiritual  man  that  the  two  may  almost  be 
said  to  be  beings  of  different  natures.  The  spiritual 
man  only  who  has  got  rid  of  the  bonds  of  carnality 
knows  how  like  and  yet  unlike  God  is  to  man.  The 
carnal  worshipper  either  prays  to  an  abstraction  or 
to  an  idol  of  flesh  and  blood  like  himself.  The  spir- 
itual man  beholds  the  Spirit  with  the  eye  of  purified 
faith,  and  worships  with  all  the  enthusiasm  and  love 
which  eternal  beauty  and  holiness  can  call  forth 
from  the  bosom  of  his  human  son  groping  and  yearn- 
ing after  him.  God  is  the  Absolute  Whole  ;  and  how 
many  universes  does  that  Whole  include.-'  Man  is  at 
best  a  spark,  an  infinitesimal  atom  of  those  eternal 
fires.  The  part  cannot  hold  or  answer  for  the  whole ; 
yet  all  fire  is  fire,  and  the  spark  suggests  the  confla- 
gration. To  be  able  to  feel  how  far  like  and  unlike 
the  divine  spark  in  us  is  to  the  eternal  glory  of  the 
Spirit  Father,  it  is  necessary  that  we  should  be 
Christlike,  and  put  on  that  sonship  which  he  taught 
and  practised.  For  this  purpose,  the  utmost  devo- 
tions and  the  strictest  self-discipline  and  faith  are 
wanted.  When  a  man  has  been  able  to  burn  out  all 
carnality  from  his  soul,  and  can,  in   spiritual  expe- 


THE   TEACHING   CHRIST  9/ 

rience,  clearly  distinguish  his  higher  self,  or  spiritual 
mind,  from  his  lower  and  carnal  mind,  then,  indeed, 
is  he  able  to  discover  the  likeness  and  unlikeness  of 
the  Deity  to  mortals.  It  is  the  immortal  that  can 
commune  with  the  Immortal.  It  is  the  spirit  that 
can  perceive  the  Spirit.  Flesh  and  blood  cannot 
see,  but  the  Son  can  behold  the  Father. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE    REBUKING   CHRIST. 

'T'HE  strong  and  fierce  language  used  on  occa- 
sions by  him  who  is  fitly  known  as  the  Lamb 
of  God  is  a  difficulty  to  the  mind  of  the  "mild 
Hindu."  Truly,  we  are  familiar  with  the  fiery  wrath 
of  some  of  our  ancient  sages  and  seers.  Durbasha 
and  Vishwamitra  were  the  impersonation  of  kind- 
ling curse  and  fire-breathing  sanctity.  But  was  not 
Jesus  the  image  of  meekness  and  submissive  love  .-^ 
Hence,  perhaps,  a  great  many  who  honor  him,  ig- 
nore these  violent  utterances,  and  are  silent  over 
them,  as  if  they  did  not  dare  to  inquire  into  senti- 
ments which  they  would  rather  see  dropped  out  of 
the  Gospels, —  nay,  which  might  be  interpolations 
after  all.  They  dwell  upon  the  more  amiable  traits 
of  Christ's  teaching.  There  are  some,  again,  who 
openly  accuse  him  of  fanaticism  and  vindictive 
wrath.  I  refer  to  the  class  of  pseudo-sentimental 
rationalists,  who  bitterly  denounce  orthodox  faith 
and  piety,  but  feel  their  delicate  susceptibilities  hurt 


THE    REBUKING    CHRIST  99 

when  Jesus  rebukes  hypocrisy  and  falsehood.  And, 
lastly,  there  are  those,  unfortunately  too  many  of 
them  in  our  country,  who,  forgetful  of  other  char- 
acteristics, imitate  the  apparent  and  occasional  vio- 
lence of  Jesus,  and  imagine  that  the  secret  of  all 
evangelistic  success  lies  in  vilifying  the  convictions 
of  other  men. 

The  right  of  rebuke  is  not  unfrequently  accorded 
to  religious  teachers.  Resentment  against  sin  and 
corruption  is  recognized  to  be  legal,  according  to 
exalted  notions  of  duty.  But  did  Christ  always 
keep  himself  within  the  limits  of  that  law  ?  Did  he 
denounce  those  who  were  notorious  for  their  sinful 
and  corrupt  lives,  and  treat  with  gentleness  the  fail- 
ings of  such  as  were  strict  and  correct  in  their 
outward  conduct  ?  Or  did  he  also  inquire  into 
secret  motives  and  the  impulses  of  action.?  Christ 
acted  in  the  most  emphatic  contradiction  to  this 
generally  accepted  rule  of  propriety.  It  is  a  sin- 
gular fact  that,  in  the  different  descriptions  of  the: 
passionate  attitudes  of  Christ,  there  is  not  a  single 
occasion  on  which  he  is  said  to  denounce  the  sinful 
and  the  vile  as  such.  His  burning  holiness  came 
in  repeated  contact  with  various  forms  of  the  most 
leprous  uncleanness,  and  never  burst  into  reproach. 
The  publican,  the  adultress,  the  thief,  and  the  harlot 


100  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

were  neither  loathed  nor  shunned,  but  were  either 
pardoned  freely,  or  dismissed  with  a  "  Go,  and  sin 
no  more."  The  fallen  and  the  castaway,  the  devil- 
ridden  and  the  detected,  met  with  nothing  but  the 
most  angelic  pity  from  him.  The  fire  of  his  wrath 
kindled  in  the  presence  of  men  of  another  kind. 
The  wages  of  sin  is  death.  Sin  may  or  may  not 
kill  the  body,  but  surely  it  brings  death  upon  the 
soul.  The  death  of  the  soul  is  the  disappearance  of 
faith.  Faith  in  the  living,  inworking  God  ceases, 
and  gives  place  to  dead  forms  and  lifeless  dogmas. 
In  the  actual  dealings  of  Providence,  in  the  charac- 
ter of  divine  men,  in  the  power  and  works  of  God- 
sent  Truth,  there  is  no  faith.  On  the  contrary,  evil 
is  done  in  the  name  of  religious  and  moral  law, 
selfishness  and  falsehood  are  disguised,  and  outward 
professions  of  rigor  and  righteousness  are  made  to 
cover  a  multitude  of  gross  transgressions.  What  is 
held  out  as  the  light  of  heaven  is  nothing  but  the 
darkness  of  hell.  Both  he  that  holds  out  this  false 
light  and  he  that  foolishly  follows  it  are  equally  led 
to  be  damned.  Christ,  therefore,  concentrates  all 
his  wrath  upon  the  self-righteous  Pharisee,  the  un- 
faithful leader  of  the  unfaithful,  who  would  neither 
enter  heaven  himself,  nor  allow  others  to  enter. 
The  publican  and  the  sinner  have  had  some  sort  of 


THE    REBUKING    CHRIST  lOI 

justice  meted  out  to  them  by  public  opinion,  and 
live  openly  in  the  shame  which  they  deserve.  Even 
atheists  and  infidels  profess  to  be  no  better  than 
what  they  are,  and  are  recognized  as  such  by  every- 
body. But  the  hypocrite  who  professes  purity  and 
practises  covetousness,  who  prays  at  street  corners 
yet  breaks  every  rule  of  truth  and  justice  when  no 
man's  eye  is  upon  him,  destroys  the  very  rudiments 
of  religion  and  morality,  though  his  own  life  may 
show  plenty  of  rigor  and  legal  exactitude.  And 
Christ,  therefore,  singles  him  out  for  his  scathing 
denunciations.  The  fire  of  his  tremendous  indigna- 
tion kindles  before  the  presence  of  such  men.  Jesus 
could  not  tolerate  hypocrisy  or  excuse  false  profes- 
sions of  faith.  Those  who  assumed  the  externals  of 
religion  and  went  through  pious  forms,  cherishing  in 
their  hearts  the  lusts  of  worldliness,  and  feeding 
those  lusts  upon  the  credulity,  the  ignorant  piety  of 
the  poor,  provoked  his  terrible  rebuke.  He  heeded 
not  their  apparent  power,  he  had  no  sympathy  with 
their  apparent  learning  and  correctness  of  habits,  he 
made  no  allowance  for  the  extenuating  influence  of 
circumstances,  but  shot  at  them  the  piercing  shafts 
of  his  bitter  speech,  and  called  down  woe  upon  the 
whole  generation  of  them.  He  could  bear  any 
amount  of  unholiness,  because  he  knew  faith  could 


102  THE   ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

cure  that.  But  he  could  not  bear  the  absence  of 
faith,  because  what  could  be  the  cure  of  that? 
Specially  when  the  absence  of  faith  was  sought  to  be 
disguised  by  cunning  and  by  hypocrisy,  he  poured 
out  his  disapprobation  in  words  which  burnt  and 
lacerated  every  one  whom  they  touched.  These 
denunciations  very  probably  hastened  his  death  :  he 
knew  that  they  did.  But,  evidently,  he  thought  it 
was  never  too  soon  to  expose  the  frightful  vortex  of 
ruin  which  was  thinly  covered  over  by  the  mouthing 
professions,  and  secret  crimes  of  the  scribes  and  the 
Pharisees.  There  are  men  in  every  age  and  country 
who  would  never  become  pure,  nor  allow  others  to 
become  pure,  covering  their  want  of  faith  and  right- 
eousness in  vain  disputations  and  worthless  soph- 
istry, and  whose  one  object  of  daily  care  is  to  see  that 
men  do  not  exchange  sinfulness  for  repentance  and 
falsehood  for  truth.  Secretly  unbelieving  and  hating 
good  men  in  their  hearts,  they  never  lack  in  words  of 
profuse  admiration  for  the  prophets  and  saints  whom 
their  predecessors  stoned  to  death.  Their  lives  ex- 
cited in  Jesus  the  heroic  resolution  to  lay  bare  the 
rottenness,  and  crush  the  iniquity  of  the  emissaries  of 
Satan.  It  need  not  be  doubted  that  these  men  had  a 
good  deal  of  conventional  punctiliousness  and  rnere- 
tricious  zeal.       But   Christ    invariably    cried,  "  Woe 


THE    REBUKING    CHRIST  IO3 

unto  them  !  "  The  gentleness  and  sympathy  of  Jesus 
must  not  be  confounded  with  weakness,  timidity,  and 
toleration  of  evil.  He  had  gentle  pity  and  forgive- 
ness for  the  victims  of  mistake  and  passion  ;  but  the 
deliberate  slaves  of  falsehood,  faithlessness,  and  relig- 
ious vanity  are  only  fit  for  the  fire  and  brimstone 
which  Jesus  hurled  at  them. 

THE    PHARISEES. 

A  religious  man  might  most  gravely  propose  to 
himself  the  question,  What  is  the  deadliest  sin  ? 
The  offences  enumerated  in  the  penal  code  of  a 
nation  do  not  necessarily  indicate  the  right  and  nor- 
mal scale  of  unrighteousness.  Falsehood,  for  the 
sake  of  selfishness,  constitutes  the  primal  source 
from  which  all  other  offences,  like  polluted  streams, 
flow  into  human  society.  And  this  falsehood,  dis- 
guised in  the  visible  paraphernalia  of  truth,  becomes 
only  ten  times  more  dangerous,  Christ,  in  rebuking 
sin,  did  not  think  it  worth  his  while  to  denounce 
its  outward  manifestations,  the  deformity  of  which 
was  patent  before  men's  eyes ;  but  he  sought  out 
the  very  fountain  from  which  the  minor  deformities 
sprang.  He  singled  out  the  representatives  of  this 
primitive  evil.  Because  he  cared  not  to  denounce 
sin    in   the  abstract,  he    chose  to  expose   sin  in  its 


I04  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

concrete  and  personal  form.  Immorality  is  the 
natural  fruit  of  hypocrisy.  What,  let  me  ask,  can 
cure  the  mortal  disease  of  the  man  who  publicly 
professes  faith  and  morality,  but  privately  indulges 
in  untruth  and  impurity  .''  Christ  singles  out  these 
men  for  his  scorching  rebukes.  Unhappily,  relig- 
ion disguises  mean  gross  worldliness  in  many  ages 
and  lands.  There  are  Pharisees  everywhere.  Men 
enter  into  a  kind  of  unhallowed  convention  to  call 
certain  forms  of  covetousness  by  the  name  of  j^iety. 
The  inspired  insight  of  Jesus  pierces  into  this 
flimsy  falsehood,  and  identifies  falsehood  without 
giving  a  chance  of  mistake. 

THE    UNBELIEVING    CITIES. 

It  seems  as  if  there  is  something  arbitrary  in 
the  denunciation  of  woe  upon  Chorazin  and  Beth- 
saida,  because  they  did  not  repent  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  Jesus  repeatedly 
puts  emphasis  on  the  fact  that  want  of  faith  is  many 
times  more  fatal  than  gross  carnality.  "  It  shall  be 
more  tolerable,"  says  he,  "for  the  land  of  Sodom  in 
the  day  of  judgment  than  for  thee,  Capernaum, 
which  art  exalted  unto  heaven."  The  want  of  faith 
is  a  dreadful  cause  of  evil  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
killing  of  one-half  of  human  nature.     It  is  the  source 


THE    REBUKING    CHRIST  10$ 

of  every  form  of  rebellion  against  the  command- 
ments of  heaven.  Few  can  imagine  the  mighty 
efficacy  of  faith  in  curing  unhappiness  and  the  evil 
of  habit.  To  Jesus,  as  well  as  to  every  other  godly 
man,  this  world  of  misery  and  trial  is  converted  into 
paradise :  it  is  the  very  secret  of  spiritual  existence. 
When  faith  is  gone,  even  paradise  itself  is  turned 
into  hell.  Few  can  think  to  what  desperation  of 
criminality  the  best  of  natures  can  run  when  the 
protecting  hand  of  faith  is  withdrawn  from  their 
motives.  Faith  can  compensate  for,  or  at  least 
cure,  very  serious  deficiencies  of  character.  But  no 
amount  of  philosophy  or  poetry  or  legal  correctness 
of  conduct  can  compensate  for  or  cure  the  deficiency 
of  faith.  The  men  who  profess  to  teach  religion 
without  the  fulness  and  maturity  of  faith  do  deserve 
to  be  singled  out  as  blind  leaders  of  the  blind.  This 
absence  of  faith  has  been  a  common  danger  in  all 
times,  and  specially  in  times  of  the  rise  of  great 
religions.  What  is  worse,  the  evil  is  most  predomi- 
nant, where  it  is  least  expected,  among  the  priestly 
and  privileged  classes ;  in  refined,  learned,  and  philo- 
sophical cities.  Among  the  unlearned  and  humble, 
infidelity  is  often  discovered  in  shameless  indul- 
gences and  carnal  excesses.  Among  the  literary, 
the    clerical,   and    the  refined,  that  infidelity  works 


I06  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

its  way  underneath  the  character,  produces  a  moral 
and  spiritual  hardness  which  nothing  can  affect, 
while  the  degrading  propensities  of  animalism  are 
allowed  subtle  satisfaction  under  the  gilded  forms  of 
a  hollow,  base  civilization.  If  guilt  emerges  on  the 
surface,  a  so-called  public  opinion  drives  it  down  to 
the  bottom  again.  And  great  cities,  great  men,  and 
great  governments  thus  rot  in  hidden  leprosy,  while 
the  outside  society  is  as  respectable  and  whitewashed 
as  possible.  Good  men  feel  the  evil,  but  know  not 
how  to  remove  it.  They  assign  one  cause  or  another. 
Politics,  and  economics,  and  education  are  all  tried  in 
vain,  till  the  prophet,  under  God's  command,  arises, 
and  preaches  repentance  in  sackcloth  and  ashes. 
The  nameless  vices  of  a  false  civilization  are  de- 
nounced under  the  name  of  infidelity.  Gross  sins 
are  found  to  be  venial  in  comparison  with  want  of 
faith.  Woe  is  denounced  upon  grand  cities  and 
systems,  and  Sodom  is  preferred  before  Capernaum. 

THE  CAMEL  AND  THE  NEEDLE's  EYE. 

The  severity  of  Jesus  upon  the  rich  is  most  un- 
mistakable. That  he  should  curse  the  rich  because 
they  are  rich  cannot  be  held  for  a  moment.  No  :  it 
was  not  the  result  of  ascetic  prejudice,  of  denomi- 
national discontent,  of  a  shallow  communistic  desire 


THE    REBUKING    CHRIST  JO/ 

to  level  down  social  inequalities.  Riches  represent 
the  outcome  of  the  form  of  infidelity  described 
above.  Spiritual  aspiration  dies,  and  is  buried  under 
the  superabundance  of  wealth.  Gold  makes  up  for 
the  want  of  faith,  truth,  and  holiness.  Effort,  labor, 
prayer,  dependence,  reflection,  even  the  hopes  of 
heaven,  merge  in  the  enjoyment  of  present  pros- 
perity. It  is  strange  how  individuals,  nay,  whole 
nations,  have  perished  through  the  excess  of  wealth. 
Some  will  argue,  it  need  not  be  so.  But  history  and 
experience  say  it  is  so.  Jesus  came  to  deal  with 
facts  and  not  hypotheses.  It  is  strange  how  sym- 
pathy, fellow-feeling,  co-operation,  and  the  bearing 
of  common  burdens  cease  under  the  supineness 
fostered  by  wealth.  The  rich  have  their  consolation 
here,  and  are  conscious  that  they  require  neither 
God  nor  immortality  to  awake  them  unto  faith. 
Yet  every  moment,  like  others,  they  stand  exposed 
to  the  fearful  risks  which  their  irresponsible  life 
draws  down  upon  them,  more,  perhaps,  than  upon 
the  rest  of  mankind.  They  are  so  feared,  so  flat- 
tered by  the  people  and  preachers  alike,  that  few 
are  found  to  have  the  courage  and  sincerity  of  love 
to  arouse  them  to  their  danger.  The  world  feeds 
upon  them,  victimizes  them,  and  lets  them  die  and 
drop   away  with   a   hollow  sigh.     The  warm,  affec- 


IOS|  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

tionate  concern  of  Jesus  kindled  at  the  spectacle  of 
ruin  which  covetousness  thus  presented  around  him. 
Soft  language,  he  felt,  would  not  shake  their  slum- 
bers. Their  false  complacence  and  unreal  laughter 
produced  in  him  the  ecstasy  of  horror  and  pain- 
He  uttered  his  cry  against  the  slavery  of  wealth  in 
words  that  wrung  the  heart,  and  aroused  the  dead. 
By  his  denunciations,  wealth  has  often  been  conse- 
crated to  higher  and  better  uses.  By  his  rebukes, 
the  self-sufficiency  of  the  prosperous,  has  been  often 
dissipated.  In  a  material,  money-loving  age,  the 
kingdom  of  spirit  has  contracted  its  limits,  and  rules 
its  few  by  a  contempt  of  the  idolatry  of  wealth. 
Well  and  wisely  does  the  New  Dispensation  act  by 
reviving,  in  its  apostolical  body,  the  vow  of  poverty. 
But  need  it  here  be  pointed  out  that  the  pride,  self- 
sufficiency,  and  supineness  of  spirit  spoken  of  here 
are  not  exclusively  confined  to  the  abundance  of 
earthly  goods  .''  Need  it  be  said  that  the  arrogance 
of  knowledge,  of  power,  of  culture,  nay,  even  of  re- 
ligiousness, produces  exactly  the  same  results  ? 
Everything  that  interferes  with  the  poverty  of  spirit, 
with  meekness,  gentleness,  and  persecuted  innocence, 
everything  that  tends  to  produce  conceit,  self-suf- 
ficiency, even  popular  approbation,  draws  down  woe 
upon    it.     The    beatitudes    of    the    Sermon    on    the 


THE    REBUKING    CHRIST  IO9 

Mount  belong  to  those  only  who  walk  humbly  with 
their  God.  The  rich  must  abase  themselves,  and 
the  arrogant  bend  their  heads  very  low  before  they 
can  enter  into  the  straight  gate  that  leads  to  the 
life  eternal. 

THE    FIG-TREE. 

Why  did  Jesus  rebuke  the  fig-tree  ?  Thought- 
less men  exult  in  the  absurdity  of  the  act.  Yet 
the  fig-tree  that  is  full  of  leaves,  and  does  not  show 
a  fruit  upon  which  the  wayfarer  can  satisfy  his 
hunger,  contains  within  itself  a  pregnant  lesson. 
It  reminds  us  of  the  metaphorical  vine,  how  "  every 
branch  that  beareth  not  fruit  he  taketh  away ;  and 
every  branch  that  beareth  fruit  he  purgeth  it,  that 
it  may  bring  forth  more  fruit."  The  vine-branch 
withereth,  and  men  cast  it  into  the  fire ;  the  fig-tree 
also  withereth  to  its  roots.  Unfertile  piety  is  a 
curse.  It  is  a  by-word  for  the  heathen,  and  a  hissing 
for  the  infidel.  The  religious  man  who  abounds  in 
words,  as  the  fig-tree  in  leaves,  who  is  full  of  doc- 
trines and  authorities,  but  cannot  yield  a  practical 
life  upon  which  tired  wayfarers  can  quench  their 
hunger  and  thirst,  only  cumbers  the  ground.  The 
test  of  religion  is  in  its  reproductiveness.  Any 
church  that  practically  does  no  good  must  cause  its 


no  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

own  removal.  And  any  church-member  who  does 
not  bring  forth  an  abundance  of  good  fruit  must  be 
taken  away,  and  cast  into  the  fire.  The  barren- 
ness of  speculation,  the  fruitless  controversies  often 
indulged  in,  the  fine,  unprofitable  sermons  which 
pulpits  put  forth  every  summer  and  winter,  the 
dearth  of  genuine  spirituality  and  practical  useful- 
ness in  religious  bodies,  might  very  well  necessitate 
the  parable  of  the  fig-tree.  Unless  our  creeds  fer- 
tilize the  world,  and  our  lives  furnish  meat  and 
drink  to  mankind,  the  curse  uttered  on  barrenness 
will  descend  upon  us. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE   WEEPING   CHRIST. 

'  I  "HE  evangelist  condenses  the  most  pregnant 
verse  of  his  recorded  testimony  into  two 
words,  "Jesus  wept."  Jesus  is  reported  to  have 
wept  only  four  times,  the  first  time  being  when  he 
stood   by  the  open   grave  of   Lazarus. 

Free  from  desire,  the  mother  of  sorrow ;  free  from 
carnal  affection,  the  cause  of  all  misery ;  free  from 
self-interest  and  self-glorification,  why  did  Jesus  weep  ?" 
Great  souls  are  seldom  found  in  the  act  of  weeping. 
Their  tears  flow  inwardly,  and,  like  the  rivers  of 
paradise,  like  the  sap  of  mighty  ancient  trees,  cir- 
culate in  hidden,  noiseless  currents  within  the  deep 
disguise  of  outward  life.  Their  unseen  tears,  like 
celestial  moisture,  deepen  the  roots  of  their  being 
in  God,  and  carry  their  heads  nearer  and  nearer  to 
heaven.  But  no  one  can  mark  how  they  deepen 
and  how  they  grow.  Why,  then,  did  Jesus  weep  ^ 
Jesus  wept  because  Mary  and  Martha  wept, —  Mary 
and  Martha,  his  beloved  daughters,  his  handmaidens,. 


112  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

in  whose  affection  and  service  he  took  delight,  who 
had  lost  their  only  brother  and  guardian  in  Lazarus. 
He  wept  the  tears  of  present  ready  sympathy  and 
consolation,  which  shares  sorrow,  and  pours  upon  it 
the  balm  of  kindred  sorrow.  Jesus  was  the  incar- 
nation of  the  sweetness  of  self-forgetful  compassion. 
Has  any  one  measured  the  depth  of  the  comfort  and 
the  good  which  an  unbidden  tear  carries  into  the 
heart  that  is  stricken?  The  eloquence  of  a  silent 
tear  shames  the  barefacedness  of  false  comforters, 
turns  human  sympathy  from  a  hollow  civilized 
mockery  into  a  blessed  reality,  and  generates  the 
electricity  that  draws  heart  to  heart.  God  weeps 
when  we  weep :  weeping  is  no  weakness,  it  is  the 
overflow  of  strong  love.  The  divine  in  Jesus  wept ; 
and  let  not  the  holiest  and  best  be  ashamed  to  weep, 
if  they  can,  with  the  poor  and  the  mean.  Mary  and 
Martha,  and  a  million  Marys  and  Marthas,  won  over 
to  faith,  love,  and  holiness,  have  wept  divine  tears 
of  blessed  sympathy,  and  spread  heavenly  comfort 
after  they  saw  that  "Jesus  wept."  Jesus  wept:  he 
wanted  whole  sorrowing  humanity  to  be  his  in 
sweet,  everlasting  sympathy.  Jesus  wept  over  the 
mangled  affections  of  others.  To  heal  the  wounds 
of  the  bereft  heart  he  did  not  scorn  to  weep.  And 
so  weeps   he   in   spirit   even    now  in  the   mansions 


THE    WEEPING    CHRIST  II3 

of  the  blest.  But  Jesus  wept  not  for  Mary  and 
Martha  alone,  but  for  their  brother  Lazarus  also. 
He  wept  not  merely  to  condole  and  console,  but  also 
to  save.  Tears  save  where  teachings  fail.  Tears 
give  a  pathos  to  the  tone,  a  point  to  persuasion, 
a  power  to  precept,  and  an  authority  to  command, 
which  make  many  a  man,  lying  dead  in  a  moral 
grave,  rise  and  come  forth.  Great  souls  weep  fruit- 
ful tears,  and  their  fruit  is  the  salvation  of  God's 
children.  We  could  raise  our  dear  ones,  lying  dead 
on  the  cold  dreary  bed  of  worldliness  and  sin,  if 
we  could  only  know  how  to  weep  faithful,  prayerful, 
fruitful  tears.  Can  any  one  imagine  how  many 
thousand  Lazaruses  have  been  raised  all  over  the 
world,  and  called  to  a  prolonged  service  of  loving 
worship  and  tried  purity  by  the  image  of  the  sweet 
weeping  Christ,  who  stands  at  their  open  sepulchre, 
and  gives  thanks  and  glory  unto  God  that  his  child, 
who  was  dead  before,  comes  back  to  life  again  .^ 
Jesus  wept,  because  his  holy  tears  carried  the  warm 
current  of  vitality  into  the  heart  of  the  living  and 
the  dead,  more  to  the  dead  than  to  the  living.  Let 
all  vain,  fruitless  tears  cease,  but  blessed  be  the 
spirit  of  the  weeping  Jesus. 

The    next    time    that  Jesus  wept  was  on  his  tri- 
umphant journey,  his  last  journey  from  Bethany  to 


114  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

Jerusalem.  The  despised  son  of  the  carpenter,  the 
poor,  proscribed  Galilean,  found  a  short  and  sudden 
recognition.  Success  seemed  unexpectedly  to  rest 
upon  his  cause  ;  and  Fortune,  for  once,  smiled  upon 
him.  Though  the  learned,  the  wealthy,  and  the 
self-conscious  kept  out  of  his  way,  the  poor,  the 
caiiaille,  the  humble,  greeted  him,  and  blessed  him. 
He  never  cared  much  for  the  rich  and  the  learned- 
He  cared  for  the  poor.  And  the  poor  held  palm 
leaves  in  their  hands  in  token  of  his  royalty,  spread 
their  scanty  garments  on  the  way  for  him  to  ride 
upon,  jDut  their  rough  cloaks  on  the  colt  to  make  his 
seat  easy,  and  in  a  hundred  other  ways  tried  to  show 
their  warm  homely  fidelity  and  love,  which  the 
poor  alone  feel  and  show.  On  went  Jesus ;  and,  as 
he  neared  Jerusalem,  became  great,  and  still  greater. 
"When  he  was  come  nigh,  the  whole  multitude  of 
his  disciples  began  to  rejoice  and  praise  God,  and 
thank  him  for  all  the  mighty  works  that  they  had 
seen,  saying.  Blessed  be  the  King  that  cometh  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  Peace  in  heaven,  and  glory 
in  the  highest."  Nay,  at  that  blessed  moment,  no- 
body seemed  able  to  keep  his  peace ;  and  it  seemed 
as  if  "the  very  stones  of  the  streets  would  cry  out" 
in  joy  and  exultation.  Yes  :  it  was  a  moment  of 
success    indeed,    well-earned,  long-delayed    success ; 


THE    WEEPING    CHRIST  II5 

and  there  was  good  cause  to  rejoice  and  shout.  But, 
when  others  laughed  and  triumphed,  he  for  whom 
there  was  all  this  gladness,  Jie  wept.  From  the  top 
of  the  hill,  he  descended  to  the  great  city  of  David, 
he  beheld  Jerusalem  spread  like  a  panorama  beneath 
him,  with  its  temples,  towers,  tombs,  with  its  gates, 
gardens,  tanks,  with  its  strange  sacred  historic  asso- 
ciations, so  thrilling  to  the  heart  of  the  true  Hebrew, 
its  marvellous  signs  of  the  dealings  of  God  with 
man.  He  beheld  the  Jerusalem  of  the  prophets, 
kings,  and  judges,  and  Zion,  the  daughter  of  God. 
Greeted  from  all  sides  as  the  Messiah,  long  foretold 
and  long  expected,  he  was  about  to  enter  that  Jeru- 
salem. Well  might  a  flush  of  joy  and  pride  light  up 
that  patient  brow.  But  nay,  not  so.  His  cheeks 
became  paler,  his  eyes  were  cast  down,  and,  strange 
to  say,  he  wept  over  the  radiant  city.  From  his  lips 
burst  out  those  heart-wringing  unearthly  words  of 
sorrow  which  seem  still  to  echo  through  the  vast 
silent  centuries  :  "  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem  !  how 
often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children,  even  as  a 
hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings !  But 
ye  would  not." 

Alas  !  why  did  he  weep  .-•  For  whom  }  Why  did 
he  weep  at  all  in  the  moment  of  joy  and  triumph.-'' 
The  present,  past,  and  future  rose  before  his  eyes 


Il6  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

in  one  tumultuous  vision.  He  could  not  help  re- 
membering the  brave,  holy  men  who  entered  Jeru- 
salem like  him,  in  like  circumstances, —  entered  to 
return  no  more.  They  entered  Jerusalem  to  spread 
the  message  of  righteousness  and  peace,  came  only 
to  raise  and  save  their  country.  They  were  de- 
spised, and  stoned  to  death.  Their  noble  images, 
their  spotless  lives,  their  burning  words,  their  mel- 
ancholy end,  rose  before  his  excited  feelings  as  he 
looked  at  the  proud  city.  His  retrospective  sym- 
pathy wept  over  their  unmerited  woe.  There  arose 
before  his  mind  how  even  now  the  wise,  wealthy, 
and  eminent  leaders  of  the  people  disowned  him, 
watched  to  waylay  him,  and  persecute  him  to  death. 
Can  it  be  he  did  not  anticipate  that  amid  all  this 
outward  enthusiasm  and  ignorant  greeting,  he  was 
entering  the  ill-fated  city  for  the  last  time,  to  eat 
his  last  morsel  of  bread  with  tears,  perform  the  sad 
ever-memorable  ceremonies,  then  to  be  caught  and 
killed  like  a  felon  .-*  Nay,  did  he  not  anticipate  the 
fearful  doom  that  overtook  the  land  and  people,  that 
destroyed  its  own  promise  and  crucified  its  own 
hope }  He  saw  but  too  well  the  dark  future  of  his 
nation  ;  and,  self-forgetful,  amid  the  surrounding  joy 
and  exultation,  Jesus  wept.  He  wept  not  when 
they  deserted  him  and  ill-treated  him,  because  then 


THE    WEEPING    CHRIST  11/ 

he  bore  his  share  of  the  world's  burdens,  the  com- 
mon lot  of  human  suffering.  But,  when  he  was 
fortunate,  successful,  exultant,  his  own  peaceful  joy 
unconsciously  compared  itself  with  the  darkening 
fate  of  his  persecutors  ;  and,  forgetting  his  present 
triumph  in  their  future  pain,  Jesus  wept. 

If  the  nation  had  accepted  and  honored  him,  there 
would  be  some  cause  to  sorrow  for  the  disaster  that 
was  fast  coming  over  it.  If  it  had  looked  up  to  him 
for  deliverance  and  kept  its  trust  and  dependence 
on  him,  there  would  be  some  cause.  But  the  nation 
treated  him  like  an  outcast  and  an  impostor,  was 
soon  going  to  reward  his  invaluable  services  with  an 
ignominious  death ;  and  for  tJiat  nation  he  wept. 
He  wept  with  the  tenderest  words  that  could  pro- 
ceed from  human  lips,  like  a  dying  mother  over  her 
helpless  babes.  Those  were  words  of  strange,  sym- 
pathetic patriotism,  divine  philanthropy,  true,  manly, 
godly  sadness  over  the  darkened  destinies  of  the 
self-deluded  evil-doer.  The  hero  can  weep  and  die 
for  his  grateful  country,  the  philosopher  can  calmly 
lay  down  his  life  before  the  admiring  gaze  of  his 
devoted  disciples,  the  dying  mother  can  plead  for 
the  clinging  babe  on  her  bosom  ;  but  can  any  but 
the  sweet  man  of  sorrows  silently  weep  for  his  trai- 
torous people  at  the  long-delayed  moment  of  triumph 


Il8  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

and  joy?     Weep  for  your  country,  as  Jesus  wept; 
nay,  weep  and  serve,  as  he  did. 

The  third  time  that  Jesus  wept  was  at  Gethsem- 
ane.  That  was  a  fearful  weeping,  indeed.  "  My  soul 
is  exceedingly  sorrowful,  even  unto  death."  It  was 
the  unspeakable  sorrow  of  parting  from  what  one 
loves  most.  It  was  the  immediate  separation  from 
his  beloved  disciples  and  friends, —  the  shepherd 
smitten  down  and  the  sheep  scattered.  Jesus  had 
a  mother,  brothers,  and  other  kinsmen,  too.  He 
was  but  seldom  with  them,  if  ever  at  all.  The  hum- 
ble, faithful  twelve  were  all  the  friends,  brothers, 
and  family  that  he  knew.  They  did  not  know  what 
he  was  to  them,  until  he  had  gone  ;  but  he  knew, 
as  the  time  of  going  came  near,  what  they  were  to 
him.  They  loved  him  with  a  sort  of  half-worldly 
loyalty,  which  forsook  them  at  the  moment  of  need. 
He  did  indeed  love  them  more  than  his  life.  He 
had  never  done  them  harm, —  ever  done  them  good  ; 
but  they  did  not  understand  it.  Poor  despised  fish- 
ermen and  wanderers  as  they  had  been,  he  called 
them  by  the  power  of  his  marvellous  love,  and  con- 
verted them  by  that  power  into  saints, —  the  honored 
of  the  honored,  the  leaders  and  ornaments  of  man- 
kind. What  had  they  done  to  him  ?  By  their  rude- 
ness and  roughness,  they  offended   those  whom   he 


THE    WEEPING    CHRIST  II9 

had  wished  to  draw  and  save.  By  their  want  of 
faith  and  spirituaHty,  they  sometimes  endangered  his 
influence  and  misrepresented  his  mission.  By  their 
want  of  love,  they  often  contended  and  fought 
among  themselves  for  personal  pre-eminence ;  and, 
at  the  time  of  his  melancholy  end,  they  did  not  dare 
even  so  much  as  to  stand  by  his  cross  and  speak 
a  word  of  consolation.  But,  unworthy  as  they  were, 
they  were  his  all ;  and,  as  the  time  of  separation  at 
last  drew  near,  he  cried,  saying,  "  My  soul  is  exceed- 
ingly sorrowful,  even  unto  death."  So  resistless  was 
his  sorrow  that  he  was  obliged  to  ask  them  to  tarry 
behind  ;  and  he  himself  went  on,  and  fell  forward 
on  the  ground  with  groans  of  indescribable  agony. 
Alas  !  they  did  not  understand  it  at  all.  They  could 
not  watch,  as  he  had  begged  them  to  do ;  nor  could 
they  pray.  In  the  listlessness  of  their  hearts,  they 
became  drowsy,  and  went  to  sleep.  They  slept :  he 
alone  watched,  wept,  and  prayed.  They  v/ere  heavy, 
slothful,  and  dead  :  he  was  throbbing  in  every  nerve 
with  an  unspeakable  life  of  sorrow,  agony,  and  anx- 
iety for  their  good.  Before  his  body  shed  its  pre- 
cious blood,  his  heart  shed  tears  of  warmer  and 
more  precious  blood.  Asleep  and  gross,  they  did 
not  count  his  tears  or  his  groans  ;  but  he  had  them, 
every  one  of  them,  in  the  heart  of  his  heart.     It  was 


I20  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

for  their  benefit,  because  he  had  not  yet  fully  estab- 
lished them  in  the  new  religion,  and  the  kingdom 
of  God  seemed  incomplete.  For  their  benefit  and 
the  good  of  the  world,  he  wished,  if  possible,  the 
cup  to  be  taken  away.  It  was  the  cup  of  direst 
hatred  and  deadliest  wrong  that  man  can  do  or 
suffer.  But  it  was  not  taken  away.  He  had  to 
drink  the  cup  to  the  dregs.  The  awful  mind  of  God 
is  known  to  him  alone.  In  the  quivering  horror 
of  the  fatal  issue,  even  Jesus  himself  felt  a  mo- 
ment's perplexity.  But,  if  the  flesh  felt  weak  in 
view  of  what  was  too  near,  the  divine  within  soon 
suffused  the  spirit  with  holy  calmness.  Himself  in 
pain,  he  wanted  to  administer  the  soothing  balm  to 
their  minds,  and  said  to  them,  "  Let  not  your  hearts 
be  troubled  :  trust  in  God,  trust  also  in  me."  But 
his  own  heart  was  troubled  for  them.  Some  might 
imagine  he  was  as  little  affected  as  the  rest,  as 
thoughtless,  as  unconcerned.  But  who  could  know 
the  double  agony  of  his  spirit,  his  agony  because 
of  the  unrighteous  state  of  the  world,  and  because 
of  his  inevitable  separation  from  those  in  whom 
every  hope  of  his  heart  was  centred  in  trust  and 
affection.  He  wept  and  groaned,  and  prayed  in 
faith  to  God  for  them,  for  those  around  them,  and 
for  us  all,  in  one  all-comprehensive  spiritual  vision ; 


THE    WEEPING    CHRIST  121 

and  his  sorrow  heals  us,  and  makes  for  righteous- 
ness to  all  those  who  believe.  Do  we  in  secret  cry 
in  his  spirit  for  our  dear  ones  ?  Do  we  take  upon 
us  the  measure  of  agony  which  they  have  deserved 
and  earned  ?  Have  we  suffered  such  a  melancholy, 
one-sided  separation,  praying  for  those  who  have 
never  prayed  for  us,  and  suffering  exceeding  sorrow, 
even  unto  death,  for  those  who  are  glad  to  leave 
us  alone  ?  Then,  perhaps,  we  may  understand  why 
Christ  wept  at  Gethsemane. 

And  then  the  last  time  that  Jesus  may  be  said 
to  have  wept  was  on  the  cross.  "  My  Father,  my 
Father,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me.''"  I  emphasize 
the  word  "Thou."  I  contrast  it  with  the  shallow,  un- 
real compassion  of  all  mankind.  What  is  not  beara- 
ble, when  the  consciousness  of  a  tremendous  "Thou" 
is  at  our  side  }  How  can  we  bear  anything,  when  the 
nameless  consolation  of  that  inexpressible  Presence 
is  taken  away,  and  the  whole  universe  emptied  into 
desolation  }  Forsaken  by  him,  we  may  feel  crushed 
at  any,  even  the  most  joyful,  moment  of  life.  For- 
saken by  him  at  the  moment  of  death,  we  may, 
indeed,  cry  out  in  deep  sorrow.  Forsaken  at  the 
awful  crisis  of  such  a  death  as  that  of  Jesus, —  what 
unfathomable  depth  of  trustful  anguish  it  must  have 
been  that  led  him  to  utter  that  imperishable  groan 


122  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

recorded,  as  it  were,  in  characters  of  blood !  He 
has  disappeared,  but  the  wild  echo  of  the  wail  seems 
to  linger  in  our  deepest  soul,  when  we  ourselves  feel 
forsaken.  Yea,  once  for  all,  when  he  had  wept  for 
every  one,  at  last  came  the  moment  when  he  had 
a  tear  to  weep  for  himself.  It  would  not  be  human, 
not  natural,  were  it  not  so.  When  friends  forsake, 
and  those  upon  whom,  in  life,  we  looked  most 
fondly  turn  their  faces  away,  when  health  and 
strength  ebb  out  into  eternity,  and  all  the  relations 
of  the  world  seem  like  the  phantoms  of  a  feverish 
dream,  is  there  not  still  left  to  us  the  right  of 
looking  up  to  our  Father,  and  catching  upon  our 
failing  hearts  one  all-sufificient  gleam  of  the  eternal 
sunshine  of  His  face  ?  But,  alas  !  when  everybody 
and  everything  has  forsaken  us,  and,  withal,  the 
smiling  light  of  God's  approving  spirit  is  eclipsed 
in  the  blackness  of  death,  —  the  utter  agony  of 
afflicted  humanity  might  well  burst  out  in  the  cry, 
"  My  Father,  my  Father,  why  hast  tJioii  forsaken 
me.-*"  Jesus  weeps  for  his  God.  Let  us  not 
be  ashamed  to  do  so.  He  drinks  the  full  cup  of 
human  helplessness.  If  he  was  helpless  in  life,  was 
he  not  doubly  friendless  at  the  dread  moment  of  his 
death  ?  If  he  was  before  forsaken  of  man,  is  he 
not  unspeakably  forsaken  now  in  his  death  .''     The 


THE    WEEPING    CHRIST  123 

weeping  Christ  on  the  cross  cries  the  cry  of  entire 
humanity  at  the  absence  of  God.  He  has  trans- 
mitted to  us  not  only  the  divine  right  of  weeping 
for  our  God,  but  weeping  in  our  dire  need  at  the 
conscious  separation  from  our  Father's  Spirit. 
Then,  truly,  does  the  Divine  Hand  smite  us,  when 
he  disguises  his  constant  nearness  into  a  dreaded 
distance.  All  complaint  of  man's  partial  loneliness 
is  hushed  before  the  majesty  of  Christ's  last  cry. 
His  work  apparently  unfinished,  with  no  one  to  take 
it  up,  with  no  sympathy  of  a  superior,  or  even  the 
kindred  spirit  of  an  equal  to  support  him,  with  the 
whole  world  arrayed  against  him  and  his  Father, 
with  nothing  to  look  up  to  but  the  eternal  grace 
which  was  then  for  a  moment  veiled  before  his 
view,  Jesus  raised  the  cry  of  sorrow.  Jesus  wept 
on  the  cross  to  give  us  infinite  encouragement, 
when,  at  times,  we  feel  forsaken  by  Heaven.  He 
was  never  less  forsaken  than  at  that  awful  moment. 
He  died  with  a  gentle  cry  of  pain,  which  carries  a 
strange  message  of  comfort  and  peace  to  every  one 
that  suffered  ever  after  in  his  name.  His  cry  makes 
our  failure  success,  our  weakness  strength,  that  we 
might  behold  what  consolation  there  is  in  weeping 
for  God.  To  solve  the  great  problem  of  sorrow  and 
pain,  to  prove  that  the  worst  suffering  may  be  the 


X 


124  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

highest  blessing  of  God,  Jesus  wept.  To  fill  our 
inner  desolation  with  his  unspeakable  sympathy,  to 
prove  to  all  men  that  to  be  forsaken  and  despised 
of  the  world  is  not  to  be  forsaken  of  God,  and  that 
suffering  means  a  diviner  life,  to  reconcile  us  to  our 
Father  in  irreconcilable  danger  and  affliction,  and 
out  of  our  helplessness  in  death  to  bring  forth 
glorious  immortality,  did  Jesus  weep.  Yet  his  were 
no  tears  of  weakness,  but  dominant,  overflowing 
strength.  He  gave,  but  when  did  he  want  to  receive 
the  tribute  of  tears  to  his  sorrow .-'  One  does  not 
find  it  recorded  that  Jesus,  at  any  time,  was  favored 
by  those  marks  of  tender  sympathy.  Even  during 
the  unrighteous  trial,  amid  the  heartless  insults  and 
bitter  mockeries  borne  in  serene  silence,  there  was 
not  a  voice,  not  a  tear,  to  relieve  the  cruelty  of  the 
unmerited  wrong.  But  the  human  heart  is  not 
made  of  stone.  Specially  the  nature  of  woman 
cannot  bear  to  see  unmoved  such  suffering  as  his. 
Therefore,  when  they  were  leading  him  out  to  die, 
he  bending  and  often  falling  under  the  weight  of 
the  heavy  cross  he  had  to  bear  on  his  back, 
dragged,  buffeted,  treated  with  every  manner  of  in- 
dignity,—  when  he  was  led  out  to  die,  Luke  says, 
"  there  followed  him  a  great  company  of  people, 
and  of   women  who  bewailed    and    lamented    him." 


THE    WEEPING    CHRIST  1 25 

Surrounded  by  such  a  scene  of  pitiless  misery,  this 
singular  expression  of  sympathy  did  not  escape  his 
watchful  observation.  He  immediately  looked  round, 
and  beheld  tlie  weeping  figures  of  humble  women, 
among  whom  his  own  mother  might  have  been. 
He  was  touched  and  impressed ;  but,  instead  of 
feeling  soothed  by  this  unexpected  tribute,  his  emo- 
tions gathered  into  that  gentle  melancholy  rebuke 
which  broke  his  long  silence  from  the  judgment 
hall  to  the  place  of  execution. 

Thyself  weeping  for  every  one,  say,  why  didst 
thou  feel  troubled  when  others  wept  for  thee .'' 
Healing  the  sick,  raising  the  fallen,  cheering  the 
weary,  giving  rest  to  every  one,  why  didst  thou 
refuse  the  only  tear-drop  they  could  spare  for  thee 
on  that  dark,  dreadful  day  .'*  Jesus,  thou  wouldst 
drink  the  flowing  cup  of  God-given  bitterness  with- 
out the  alloy  of  earthly  sympathy !  Because,  until 
sorrow  was  complete,  how  could  joy  attain  its  full 
measure  in  heaven .''  Personality  has  ever  been  the 
cause  of  pain.  By  sacrificing  that  at  the  altar  of 
sorrow,  thou  hast  solved  the  permanent  mystery  of 
life,  and  lifted  the  veil  that  hangs  on  the  face  of 
the  Great  Unknown. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE    PILGRIMING    CHRIST. 

'T^HE  knowledge  of  a  divine  call  does  not  neces- 
sarily mean  the  knowledge  of  a  divine  appoint- 
ment. To  feel  called  to  the  ministry  is  not  always 
to  find  your  place  in  the  eternal  hierarchy.  God  is 
one,  the  Church  is  one ;  but  the  ministers  are  many. 
The  devotee  longs  to  know  what  is  his  exact  place. 
Particularly  in  the  case  of  a  great  spiritual  genius, 
the  whole  prophetic  past  and  the  boundless  hope  of 
the  future  demand  that  he  should  definitely  state  his 
position,  that  the  world  may  know  what  to  expect 
of  him.  Hence,  self-knowledge,  in  the  republic  of 
spirit,  becomes  a  supreme  necessity.  The  greatest 
saints  of  our  Aryan  world  teach  self-knowledge  as 
the  stepping-stone  to  knowledge  of  God.  But  self- 
knowledge,  in  view  of  one's  own  place  in  the  min- 
istry, must  be  relative,  depending  upon  the  know- 
ledge of  the  proper  place  of  others.  To  usurp  a 
position  that  rightfully  belongs  to  another  is  to  be 
expelled  from  the  rights  which  belong  to  one's  own 


THE    PILGRIMING    CHRIST  12/ 

self.  Specially  in  a  case  like  that  of  Jesus,  where 
the  divine  commission  extends  its  relations  to  all 
the  prophets  of  the  past,  to  all  the  greatest  souls  of 
the  present,  and  to  the  hope  and  destiny  of  mankind 
in  the  future,  the  rightful  assertion  of  distinctive 
work,  in  the  progressive  dispensation  of  God  must 
be  singularly  difficult.  The  questions  which  men 
often  asked  of  Jesus,  he  must  have  asked  of  himself. 
Was  he  Moses,  was  he  Elias,  was  he  Jeremias,  or  any 
of  the  other  prophets  come  to  life  again  .^  How  was; 
the  work  appointed  for  him  related  to  the  work  of  the 
elder  dispensation  }  Did  he  come  to  supplant  the 
laws  and  prophets  .''  These  questions  were  as  delicate 
as  they  were  momentous.  Is  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion superior  or  inferior  to  the  Mosaic  ?  If  it  is  supe- 
rior, God's  great  action  in  the  past  is  nullified.  If  it 
is  inferior,  why  should  men  forsake  the  better  for  the 
worse.'*  With  the  object  of  satisfactorily  answering- 
these  questions,  Jesus  made  a  spiritual  pilgrimage  to 
Moses  and  the  prophets  of  old.  He  subjectively 
realized  their  ideals  in  himself.  "  It  is  this  philos- 
ophy of  subjectivity,"  Keshub  says,  "which  under- 
lies the  pilgrimages  to  saints  in  the  New  Dispensa- 
tion. As  pilgrims,  we  approach  the  great  saints,  and 
commune  with  them  in  spirit,  killing  the  distance  of 
time  and  space.     We  enter  into  them,  and  they  enter 


128  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

into  US.  In  our  souls  we  cherish  them,  and  imbibe 
their  character  and  principles.  If  they  are  not  per- 
sonally present  with  us,  they  may  be  spiritually 
drawn  into  our  life  and  character.  •  They  may  be 
made  to  live  and  grow  in  us.  This  is  a  normal  psy- 
chological process,  to  which  neither  science  nor 
theology  need  take  exception.  I  believe  philoso- 
phers have  not  noticed  one  thing, —  the  absorbent 
character  ot  the  soul.  Marvellous  is  its  power  of 
receptivity.  It  is  a  wonderfully  impressionable  sub- 
stance. An  hour  in  the  company  of  saints  is 
enough.  The  whole  heart  is  revolutionized.  All 
scriptures  bear  testimony  to  this  blessed  influence." 
Jesus,  then,  to  solve  the  momentous  questions  of 
his  ministry,  held  such  spiritual  communion  with 
Moses,  and  went  on  pilgrimage  to  Elias  and  the 
elder  prophets.  Heaven  must  descend  upon  earth 
before  earth  can  ascend  to  heaven.  Who  can  have 
a  living  faith  in  the  resurrection  and  communion 
of  the  prophets  but  he  who  has  seen  and  conversed 
with  them  ?  The  kingdom  of  heaven  —  the  future 
state  of  life  —  is  "  not  lo  here,  lo  there,  but  with- 
in." Enfolded  within  the  living  spirit,  in  the  sancti- 
fied present,  there  lies  deep  that  blessed  life  eternal. 
But  its  secrets  never  come  into  full  view  until  the 
fiery  emergencies  of   spiritual    trial    call    them  into 


THE    PILGRIMING    CHRIST  I29 

unmistakable  prominence.  Jesus  called  away  his 
three  most  advanced  and  appreciative  companions 
into  the  mountain  solitude  in  night-time.  There,  it 
was  his  wont  to  pray.  When  all  voices  were  hushed, 
all  scenes  were  overcast,  and  darkness  shadowed 
forth  the  Infinite,  his  sublime  spirit  sought  light 
and  counsel  amid  the  unbroken  silence.  The  carnal 
sleep,  the  Yogi  is  awake :  he  interrogates  darkness, 
silence,  and  the  unknown  great.  Christ  called  away 
his  disciples,  because  his  soul  yearned  to  take  and  to 
give  a  great  secret.  Only  a  week  before  did  the 
declaration  of  his  sonship  formally  take  place  on  the 
coast  of  Philippi.  Now,  naturally,  various  further 
and  all-important  questions  arose.  What  was  his 
place  in  the  new  dispensation, —  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven, —  which  would  come  about  before  those 
who  then  stood  around  him  passed  out  of  life  .-•  The 
place  of  a  man  before  the  pure,  all-witnessing  Spirit 
of  God,  and  in  the  estimation  of  those  who  are 
heavenly-minded,  determines  his  place  in  the  world. 
All  true  relations  are  eternal.  Hence,  it  is  said  that 
heaven  must  descend  on  earth,  before  man,  who  is 
of  the  earth,  can  ascend  to  his  proper  place  in 
heaven. 

Jesus  received  all  secrets  of  his  Father's  kingdom 
through    the   spirit    and    attitude   of   prayer.     And, 


130  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

hence,  when  Peter,  John,  and  James  stood  with  him 
on  the  mountain,  he  was  merged  in  devotions.  How 
long  he  remained  thus  absorbed  is  not  said.  But 
the  silence  of  the  disciples  is  first  broken  by  a 
strange  change  in  the  appearance  of  Jesus.  His 
face  shone  like  the  sun,  and  his  garment  was  as 
white  as  the  snow.  His  hidden  spirituality  came 
openly  into  view.  A  man  attains  the  perfection 
of  his  spirituality,  when  his  innermost  prayers  to 
heaven  are  consciously  answered.  The  certainty 
of  revelation  falls  upon  him  in  full  flood ;  and  he 
lives  the  life  of  a  spirit,  while  still  in  the  human 
body.  He  sees  the  spirit  in  his  heart,  and  others 
see  the  spirit  on  his  countenance  ;  and  he  sees 
the  spirits  in  the  Spirit,  the  glorified  souls  of  saints 
and  prophets  in  the  glory  of  the  Holy  of  holies. 
He  beholds  himself  on  the  bosom  of  God,  sur- 
rounded by  the  spirits  of  the  blessed.  In  the  beat- 
itude of  his  soul,  his  whole  appearance  is  changed  : 
he  is  transformed,  transfigured,  and  gone  to  the 
spirit-land  of  pilgrimage.  The  past  and  future  dis- 
solve in  one  overpowering  vision  of  light.  The 
great  departed  come,  as  it  were,  and  stand  on  his 
right  and  on  his  left  ;  and  so  vivid  becomes  the 
reality  of  his  relations  with  them  that  he  perceives 
them,  converses    with    them,   and    adjusts    his    true 


THE    PILGRIMING    CHRIST  I3I 

place  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And,  hence,  we 
read  that  "  the  fashion  of  Christ's  countenance  was 
altered,  that  his  raiment  became  white,  and  there 
talked  with  him  two  men,  who  were  Moses  and 
Elias,  who  appeared  in  glory,  and  spake  to  him  of 
his  decease,  which  he  should  accomplish  at  Jerusa- 
lem." Henceforth,  Jesus  talked  confidently  of  his 
relations  to  the  two  great  prophets,  and  boldly 
claimed  his  place  in  the  ancient  theocracy. 

His  relative  place  to  Elias,  the  prophecy  about 
whose  reappearance  was  a  disturbing  element  in  the 
organization  of  the  holy  kingdom,  was  settled  in  his 
own  mind.  His  attitude  to  the  great  Mosaic  dispen- 
sation was  fully  elucidated.  And  the  certainty  of 
all  this  revelation  he  enforced  in  the  minds  of  his 
three  disciples.  But  he  withheld  its  communication 
from  all  others,  until  his  death  and  resurrection^ 
implied  in  the  heavenly  secret  which  was  committed 
to  his  hands.  Thus,  in  devotional  rapture,  Christ 
was  transfigured,  and  saw  heaven  on  earth.  Thus,. 
he  discovered  his  profoundest  relations  to  the  de- 
parted and  to  the  future  generations.  His  place  to 
the  ancient  prophets  was  also  determined  in  his  own 
consciousness.  He  taught  with  greater  authority 
than  he  had  ever  exercised  before,  because  he  taught 
as  one  who   had   seen    the   things   which   he  asked 


132  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

people  to  believe.  Let  us  remember  his  devotions 
were  the  fittest  opportunities,  when  he  realized  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth,  when  he  beheld,  com- 
muned, and  conversed  with  the  holy  prophets,  when 
the  momentous  secrets  of  the  divine  bosom  were 
kindled  and  poured  into  his  soul.  His  protracted, 
watchful,  untiring  devotions  were  his  discipline,  his 
school,  his  pilgrimage,  his  light,  and  the  crises  of  his 
earthly  existence.  Might  not  devotions  and  prayers 
be  cultivated  to  lead  us  to  all  truth  and  holiness  .'* 
Might  not  our  devotions  suffice  for  every  perplexity, 
for  every  trial,  for  every  deficiency .-'  Yes,  if  we 
have  the  spirit  which  Christ  had,  we,  too,  then  might 
converse  with  Jesus,  as  Jesus,  transfigured,  con- 
versed with  Moses  and  Elias  on  the  mountain. 

For  intense  seeing  into  God  shows  God  in  the 
deepest  humanity.  When  God  and  humanity  be- 
come united,  the  carnal  man  disappears  to  reappear 
in  Him  as  a  spirit,  and  He  disappears  from  every 
other  thing  to  reappear  in  man  as  divine  character, 
then  communion,  or  Yoga,  becomes  perfect.  Heaven 
dawns  upon  earth  when  God  and  his  prophets  people 
its  heights  and  depths.  What  are  the  prophets  but 
the  truest  revelation  of  humanity,  and  what  is  God 
but  the  life  and  soul  of  the  prophets  ?  He  therefore 
lives  in  heaven  who  lives  continually  in  God    and 


THE    PILGRIMING    CHRIST  I33 

his  elect.  The  most  striking  instance  of  this  is  in 
the  transfiguration  of  Jesus.  Toiling  up  the  high 
mountain  for  his  wonderful  devotions,  he  often 
parted  from  his  disciples  and  prayed  alone.  The 
lofty  solitude  of  his  soul  made  sometimes  human 
companionship  simply  impossible.  So  he  left  them, 
and  merged  in  spiritual  absorption.  On  the  pres- 
ent occasion,  however,  it  was  different.  They  were 
near  when  he  lapsed  into  his  devotions.  They  ob- 
served him.  And  his  intense  communion  in  their 
simple  eyes  of  faith  seemed  to  impart  a  strange 
alteration  to  his  outward  appearance.  He  became 
refined,  pure,  heavenly,  white  as  snow.  Nothing 
could  be  more  translucent  than  the  absorbed,  ideal- 
ized figure,  the  spirit  merged  in  Spirit,  the  whole 
body  suffused  and  shining  with  the  effulgence  of  the 
communion.  During  these  rare  conditions,  the  in- 
visible becomes  visible,  and  we,  as  it  were,  behold 
the  soul.  But  in  Christ's  case  it  was  still  more  mar- 
vellous. He  was  talking  with  persons  who  were  not 
on  earth,  but  in  heaven.  Conversation  is  impossible, 
unless  those  who  talk  stand  in  each  other's  presence. 
Elias  and  Moses  were  in  the  presence  of  Jesus. 
Not  only  was  the  outward  appearance  of  Jesus 
heavenly,  but  he  was  in  heaven,  conversing  with 
those  who  live  in  paradise.      He   had  gone   to   the 


134  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

mountain-top,  as  his  wont  was,  to  seek  and  commune 
with  the  spirit  of  God  alone.  But,  in  finding  God, 
he  found  also  the  spirits  of  his  glorious  prophets. 
Through  the  Spirit,  he  made  his  entrance  into  the 
spirit  world,  and  conversed  with  those  whose  mission 
on  earth  was  associated,  if  not  identified,  with  his 
own.  Did  he  see  ghosts,  immaterial  apparitions, 
about  which  visionaries  speak  ?  Far  from  it.  The 
whole  thing  was  profoundly  spiritual.  He  saw  the 
vivid  ideals  of  his  great  predecessors  embosomed  in 
the  depths  of  God  with  whom  he  communed.  Di- 
vinity symbolized  itself  in  the  clearest  vision  of 
the  character  and  mission  of  Moses  and  Elias.  And 
Jesus  perceived  the  relations  of  his  work  with  that 
of  those  who  had  come  and  gone  before  him  as  har- 
bingers of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He  verified  and 
confirmed  his  previous  estimates  and  ideals  at  that 
blessed  season  of  transfiguration,  when  he  beheld 
everything  in  the  light  of  the  manifested  Spirit 
alone.  And,  henceforward,  he  spoke  with  authority 
about  Elias  and  Moses.  When  they  questioned  him 
about  the  coming  of  Elias  and  the  restoration  of  all 
things,  he  answered  forcibly,  "  I  say  unto  you  Elias 
is  come."  Moses  and  Elias  had  indeed  come.  They 
were  in  Christ's  blood  and  breath.  They  were  in 
Christ's  heart,  ideal,  character,  and  work.     He  living 


THE    PILGRIMING    CHRIST  135 

in  God  and  his  prophets,  the  kingdom  was  within 
him.  He  had  made  the  pilgrimage,  he  had  labored 
up  the  holy  mountain  of  God,  he  was  immersed  in 
the  Spirit,  and  the  things  of  the  Spirit.  His  whole 
nature,  his  figure,  and  his  raiment  whitened  and 
glistened  with  that  inner  heavenliness  which  carried 
him  into  the  Paradise  of  divine  presence,  and 
through  divinity  into  the  communion  of  the  spirits 
of  the  blessed,  who  unfolded  to  him  the  marvellous 
mysteries  of  the  better  land.  This  is  the  true  pil- 
grimage. And  well  might  Peter  say,  "  Master,  it  is 
good  for  us  to  be  here  and  build  tabernacles." 

But  what  was  the  result  of  it  all  ?  Let  us  see 
what  relations  the  pilgriming  Christ  discovers  be- 
tween the  dispensation  of  Moses  and  his  own.  He 
said  "he  did  not  come  to  destroy  the  law,  but  to 
fulfil  it."  What  then  was  the  character  of  that  ful- 
filment ?  He  developed  it,  widened  it,  made  it  more 
universally  applicable. 

"There  is  such  a  thing  as  the  evolution  of  the 
divine  purpose  in  the  order  and  history  of  religion. 
There  is  a  logical  sequence  in  the  dispensations  of 
faith.  All  these  dispensations  are  connected  with 
each  other  in  the  economy  of  Providence.  They 
are  linked  together  in  one  continuous  chain,  which 
may  be  traced  to  the  earliest  age.     They  are  a  con- 


136  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

catenated  series  of  ideas  which  show  a  systematic 
evolution  of  thought  and  of  reUgious  life.  Popular 
opinion,  however,  on  this  subject,  has  always  run 
in  a  contrary  direction.  Men  have  not  seen,  and 
therefore  they  are  ready  to  ignore  and  deny  the 
connecting  link  between  the  several  dispensations. 
The  New  Dispensation  has  discovered  the  missing 
link.  In  Jesus,  we  see  the  logical  sequence  of 
Moses.  The  New  Testament  is  the  necessary  log- 
ical sequence  of  the  Old.  Faith  sees  Christ  in 
Moses.  Logic  looks  upon  Christ  as  the  logical 
sequence  of  Moses.  The  Jew  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  the  Jew  of  the  Old  Testament  developed 
and  matured.  Moses  is  the  prefiguration  of  Jesus. 
Jesus  is  Moses  perfected.  Moses  taught  stern 
justice,  and  inaugurated  the  kingdom  of  law.  Jesus 
taught  love,  and  established  the  kingdom  of  grace. 
The  theology  of  love  is  the  logical  complement 
of  the  theology  of  fear.  The  dispensation  of  grace 
is  the  necessary  logical  result  of  the  dispensation 
of  justice.  The  two  form  one  integral  gospel,  and 
are  indissolubly  connected.  Can  you  separate  Moses 
from  Jesus .-'  You  cannot.  Come  then,  Moses  and 
Christ,  hand  in  hand.  Hail  Moses,  Christ,  unity  in 
duality !  In  blessed  union  forever  knit  together, 
who  can  disunite  you  ?  " 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  TRUSTING  CHRIST. 

/CONTEMPLATE  the  singular  relations  which 
Jesus  had  to  "little  children."  The  scene  in 
which  he  rebuked  his  forbidding  disciples  because 
they  did  not  suffer  innocent  children  to  approach 
him  has  formed  the  subject  of  the  highest  art  and 
spirituaUty.  His  allusions  to  babes  and  sucklings, 
to  lambs  and  little  ones,  were  exceedingly  frequent. 
Jesus  had  in  him  a  child  nature  which  repeatedly 
found  intense  response  in  lilies,  lambs,  and  "little 
children."  He  said,  "  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  What  is  there  in  the  nature  of  loving 
infants  that  bears  a  special  affinity  to  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  ?  Is  it  the  guileless  innocence  unsuscep- 
tible of  temptation  .-*  Is  it  the  mysterious  tender- 
ness whose  only  language  is  the  smile  and  the  tear  ? 
Is  it  the  simplicity  that  insures  the  highest  free- 
dom .■*  It  may  be  all  this,  but  it  is  certainly  some- 
thing more.  The  deepest  attitude  of  childhood  is 
its  trustfulness.      The    inexperienced   and  unknow- 


138  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

ing  innocence  of  infancy  is  inimitable  in  age.  The 
freedom,  the  tenderness,  the  simplicity  of  the  babe, 
can  be  more  admired  than  adopted.  But  Jesus  has 
proved  that  we  can  trust  like  the  child.  Christ's 
tenderness,  it  has  been  said  before,  was  like  that  of 
the  woman.  His  courage  and  strength  were  like 
those  of  the  hero.  His  holiness  has  set  the  stand- 
ard of  all  human  morality  and  pureness  of  motive. 
But  his  trustfulness  was  that  of  the  child.  The  first 
thing  which  you  mark  in  a  child's  trust  in  its  parents 
is  the  absence  of  anxiety.  Perfect  trust  casts  out 
anxiety.  The  child  reposes  on  the  bosom  of  its 
mother  like  a  pilgrim  in  some  immortal  shrine,  like 
a  ship-wrecked  traveller  in  some  indestructible  ark, 
who,  while  a  mad  sea  is  raging  around,  feels  safe 
and  strangely  assured.  The  only  cause  of  danger 
and  anxiety  is  when  the  mother  is  not  near.  The 
fox  has  its  hole  and  the  bird  its  sheltering  branch, 
but  the  Son  of  Man  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head. 
Yet  no  one  denounced  anxiety  and  care  for  the 
morrow  in  stronger  words  than  did  the  Son  of  Man. 
His  childlike  trustfulness  laid  all  anxiety  to  sleep. 
Jesus  felt  it  was  enough  for  him  to  look  up  to  God 
and  rest.  Was  any  one's  life-work  undertaken  amid 
circumstances  more  hopeless  than  his  .-'  Had  any 
one  ever  had  greater  occasion  for  anxiety  than  he  ? 


THE    TRUSTING    CHRIST  1 39 

But  his  trustfulness  brought  with  it  the  calm  of 
quietness  and  peace.  For,  with  him,  faith  meant 
certainty,  and  to  trust  was  to  repose  on  the  Father's 
bosom.  Another  thing  was  the  absence  of  fear  in 
Christ's  character.  Wherever  the  child  fears,  he  can- 
not love  ;  where  he  loves,  he  does  not  fear.  Hence, 
his  attachment  to  his  mother  is  more  than  to  his 
father,  because  in  his  relation  to  the  latter  there  is 
sometimes  the  element  of  fear.  The  Hindu  never 
stops  by  calling  his  God  his  father  :  he  always  softens 
divinity  in  motherhood.  Jesus  was  fearless  not  in 
the  sense  of  Elias  and  John.  It  was  not  the  ferocity 
of  wild  asceticism.  It  was  the  perfect  fearlessness 
of  loving  trust.  Fear  is  the  child  of  disobedience, 
and  the  father  of  falsehood.  The  faith  of  Jesus  was 
never  tainted  with  the  consciousness  of  transgression, 
and  therefore  it  expelled  all  fear.  It  was  perfectly 
royal  in  its  freedom  and  self-assurance.  Nothing 
was  impossible  to  it.  Jesus  feared  not  to  cure  dis- 
ease, to  forgive  sin,  and  to  break  convention.  He 
feared  neither  priest,  prince,  nor  proconsul,  because 
he  had  the  strength  of  trust.  Power,  position,  and 
wealth  had  as  little  effect  upon  him  as  upon  the 
unweaned  child  clinging  to  its  mother's  neck.  Even 
the  fear  of  death,  that  comes  to  all,  came  not  to  him. 
Childhood  never  despairs.     Hope  is  born  of  child- 


140  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

like  trust,  hope  is  fed  by  trust.  None  can  hope  as 
the  child  can.  Despair  is  born  of  hardness  of  heart. 
The  hopefulness  of  Christ's  faith  penetrated  the  very 
veil  of  death.  But  no  hopes  of  the  good  things  of 
this  world  flattered  the  heart  of  Jesus.  True  trust 
never  rears  its  hopes  on  earthly  vanity.  Christ 
hoped  for  all  things  heavenly.  Faith  builds  its 
hope  on  the  eternal  hereafter.  The  trusting  Christ 
launches  on  the  bark  of  hope  into  the  dark,  unknown 
future.  He  can  hopefully  face  a  cold,  cruel  nation, 
he  can  defy  all  the  persecution,  hate,  and  infidelity 
of  the  present,  and  work  for  the  benefit  of  a  certain 
future.  Suffering  loses  its  smart  before  genuine 
trust.  Trust  proves  its  strength  in  suffering. 
Every  one  suffers,  but  the  trusting  son  of  God 
understands  and  honors  suffering.  The  perfection 
of  faith  is  at  the  moment  of  death.  True  trust  is 
struck  by  suffering  as  the  great  tree  of  the  forest 
by  the  storm,  to  be  tossed,  torn,  and  settled  deeper 
in  everlasting  strength.  Suffering  and  trust  ever 
go  together :  the  suffering  is  for  a  little  while,  while 
the  trust  is  transformed  into  eternal  joy.  Can  sub- 
mission ever  go  to  a  greater  extremity  than  in 
Jesus .''  He  submitted,  because  he  trusted.  He 
submitted,  because  in  faith  he  beheld  a  will  higher 
than   his  own.     To  that  will    he  sacrificed    himself. 


THE    TRUSTING    CHRIST  I4I 

Every  one  has  got  to  sacrifice  to  something. 
Blessed  he  who  can  submit  in  trust  to  the  true 
will  of  God.  Blessed  he  who  has  discovered  the 
will  of  God  to  be  different  from  his  own,  and  trust- 
fully submitted  to  it. 

Trust,  as  a  faculty  of  the  soul,  passes  almost  with- 
out recognition.  Yet,  in  spiritual  life,  it  is  a  car- 
dinal, vital  power.  It  is  not  a  mere  feeling.  Though 
its  relations  to  all  warmth  of  sentiment  be  very 
deep,  it  is  a  positive  organ  of  strength.  The  solidity, 
the  objective  magnitude  of  truth,  is  never  realized 
except  through  trust.  The  kingdom  which  Christ 
came  to  establish,  and  which,  in  its  material  form, 
was  simply  nowhere,  existed  in  its  stern  objectivity 
in  the  domain  of  his  trust.  Nay,  where  is  God; 
where  is  the  celestial,  immortal  soul ;  where  is 
future  eternal  life,  but  in  the  vision  of  trust  ?  Yet 
it  is  strange  that  men  will  put  their  trust  in  fallible 
historical  records  of  the  past,  in  legendary  imagi- 
native revelations,  but  have  no  faith  in  the  tremen- 
dous realities  that  beset  them.  Christ  saw  things 
through  trust :  we  see  things  through  the  intellect. 
Faith  beholds  being,  while  intellect  beholds  mere 
relations.  Relations  are  continually  changing.  Being 
remains  unchanged.  Opinions  are  unstable  :  trust  is 
eternal.     Eternal  verities,  therefore,  are  comprehen- 


142  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

sible  through  faith.  Who  can  measure  the  strength 
of  truth  ?  It  reaches  farther  than  the  ages :  it 
moves  and  makes  the  world.  The  strength  of  truth 
is  the  strength  of  the  man  who  puts  his  trust  in 
that  truth.  There  is  occasion,  therefore,  that,  in  the 
midst  of  all  our  philosophy  and  material  comfort,  we 
should  revive  in  ourselves  the  lost  inspiration  of  the 
faculty  of  trust.  Trust  God,  trust  man  :  it  will  only 
strengthen  you,  and  do  you  good. 

Trust  is  the  test  of  love.  A  sure  and  infallible 
test  it  is,  because  divine  love  is  very  different  in  its 
processes  from  human  love.  Divine  love  tries  us, 
pains  us,  punishes  us,  throws  us  into  the  midst  of 
inexplicable  perplexities.  How  few  men  can  retain 
the  sweetness  and  fulness  of  their  trust  amid  the 
small,  vulgar  harassments  of  life ;  and  how  fewer 
still  amid  great  and  unprecedented  disasters  !  Trust 
helps  love,  and  love  helps  trust ;  trust  without 
love  may  sustain  us,  but  love  without  trust  is  a 
mockery.  Nay,  the  two  abide  together,  and  are 
different  names  given  to  different  sides  of  the 
same  mental  attitude.  This  trust  is  the  key  to  all 
deep  wisdom.  It  opens  a  wonderful  insight  into  all 
that  is  excellent  in  man's  life  and  soul.  It  gives 
new  eyes  and  new  ears  to  the  faithful  disciple.  It 
gives  new  enthusiasm  and  unseals  hidden  life  to  the 


THE    TRUSTING    CHRIST  I43 

genuine  devotee.  In  the  wreck  of  bodily  powers,  in 
the  dissolution  of  social  attachments,  it  is  true  trust 
that  finds  out  the  difference  between  what  is  tran- 
sient and  permanent.  The  sure  indication  of  a 
higher  and  better  life  is  this  faculty  of  trust,  be- 
cause evidence  fails  us  here,  and  demonstration  it  is 
foolish  to  expect.  After  the  example  of  Christ, 
therefore,  it  becomes  every  one  of  us  to  acquire  the 
strength  of  trust,  and  treasure  up  its  wisdom.  It 
becomes  us  to  temper  our  love  with  trust,  to  test 
our  devotions  with  trust,  and  make  faith  the  ever- 
lasting ground  of  our  religion  and  our  hope. 

But  there  is  more  benefit  in  the  principle  of  trust 
than  all  this.  It  is  the  strength  of  patience  and 
peace.  When  Christ  promised  his  peace  to  his  dis- 
ciples, he  presupposed  in  them  the  condition  of  trust.. 
Is  there  any  misery  comparable  to  that  of  self-con- 
suming anxiety  .?  And  are  not  the  troubled  Avaters 
of  care  laid  at  rest  by  the  touch  of  inner  trust.? 
The  genuineness  of  religious  life  must  be  meas- 
ured by  the  permanent  peace  it  affords.  And  na 
peace  is  possible  but  through  well-founded  trust. 
The  fiery  passions  —  such  as  anger,  hatred,  and 
revenge — are  quenched  by  the  serene  calmness  of 
trust.  The  war  of  motives  is  reconciled  by  its  wis- 
dom.    The   strange    inequalities  and  apparent  con- 


144  'THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

traclictions  of  life  are  allayed  and  explained  by  power 
of  trust.  Dangers,  uncertainties,  injustices,  asper- 
ities, all  lose  their  might  to  afflict  the  man  who 
looks  to  the  future  in  lofty,  God-illumined  trust. 
There  is  neither  religion  nor  philosophy,  neither 
social  nor  domestic  life,  neither  bodily  health  nor 
motion,  neither  mental  security  nor  comfort,  with- 
out conscious  and  unconscious  trust.  We  trust  men 
with  our  life  and  property,  without  inquiring  for  a 
moment  into  their  character.  We  trust  ourselves 
and  our  dear  ones  to  laws  and  organizations,  know- 
ing them  to  be  faulty  or  wicked.  We  even  trust  in 
irrational  natural  forces,  and  brute  beasts  to  work 
our  purposes,  and  our  welfare.  The  law  of  trust 
permeates  every  part  of  the  creation.  How  is  it, 
then,  that  we  hesitate  or  unwillingly  consent  to  trust 
in  the  love  of  that  God  who  has  made  his  creatures 
mutually  trustful  and  dependent  on  each  other } 

And,  lastly,  if  we  have  to  offer,  we  have  also  to 
receive  a  solemn  trust.  Jesus  trusted  because  he 
received  a  trust.  The  trust  with  which  he  was  com- 
missioned was  to  set  forth,  and  leave  behind  him  the 
example  of  true  sonship.  That  sonship  is  many- 
sided.  Each  one  of  us  who  professes  allegiance  to 
him  reflects  a  feature  of  it.  Each  is  a  limit  and 
member   of   that   perfect,   corporate   sonship.     And 


THE    TRUSTING    CHRIST  I45 

each  is  bound  to  receive  and  discharge  his  own  frag- 
ment of  trust,  that  the  Church  may  complete  its 
organization,  and  shine  before  the  world.  He  who 
feels  this  grave  trust  reposing  on  him  dares  not 
trifle  with  it,  and  finds  he  has  not  a  moment  to  lose. 
Vain  contentions,  and  rivalries  for  power  cease  when 
men  become  conscious  of  the  trust  God  reposes  on 
them.  Life  is  too  short,  and  opportunities  come  but 
too  rarely,  to  discharge  it  satisfactorily.  How  can  we 
keep  our  trust  but  by  trusting  ?  Every  great  work 
is  endless :  we  can  never  accomplish  it  perfectly. 
And  the  Son  of  God,  when  called  away,  found  the 
world  far  away  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven  he 
came  to  establish.  For  what  he  accomplished,  he 
glorified  God  ;  for  what  he  could  not  accomplish, 
he  looked  up  in  trust  to  the  Holy  Spirit  to  accom- 
plish when  he  was  gone.  Yet,  all  the  time  he  was 
allowed  to  walk  on  the  earth,  he  spared  no  energy, 
and  wasted  no  time  in  carrying  out  to  the  fullest 
extent  the  great  work  trusted  to  him.  The  most 
active,  practical,  painstaking  life  was  the  life  of  the 
trusting  Christ.  And  thus  true  trust  is  discharged 
in  work  and  suffering  unto  death. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE    HEALING   CHRIST. 

T^HE  miracles  of  healing  which  Jesus  performed 
necessarily  resulted  from  the  concentration  of 
his  sympathy.  He  felt  so  intensely  for  the  ailments,, 
both  bodily  and  spiritual,  of  those  who  helplessly 
courted  his  aid  to  cure  them,  that  the  necessity  of 
rescuing  these  sufferers  forced  itself  upon  his  loving 
nature.  It  may  be  that  Jesus,  like  any  other  rabbi 
of  his  time,  knew  the  rudiments  of  the  healing  art. 
But  even  the  highest  medical  skill  of  those  days 
could  not  cope  with  the  strange  maladies  which  the 
Son  of  God  so  effectually  healed. 

Coming  to  speak  of  Christ  as  the  healer,  it  natu- 
rally occurs  to  one  to  meditate  on  the  nature  of 
sympathy  as  efficacious  for  the  cure  of  sin.  What 
healing  is  comparable  to  the  healing  of  the  wounds 
of  character  ?  The  worst  sins  are  cured,  if  the  evil- 
doer can  find  sympathy  with  the  divine  attributes 
of  the  physician  of  souls.  If  Christ  cured  2:)hysical 
ailments  now  and  then,  how  often  did  he  cure  the 


THE    HEALING    CHRIST  14/ 

blindness,  leprosy,  and  death  of  the  spirit  ?  His 
reputation  comes  down  to  the  generations  of  man- 
kind, not  because  he  cured  Peter's  wife's  mother, 
but  because  he  sought  and  saved  the  fallen.  The 
secret  of  that  atoning  power  lay  in  his  instinct  of 
being  able  to  feel  with  the  worst  of  men  and  women. 
Their  guilt  of  moral  disease,  their  shame,  remorse, 
and  ruin  touched  a  mysterious  chord  in  his  beautiful 
nature,  and  produced  the  most  intense  agony.  Why 
is  it  that  holiness  should  be  agonized  at  unholiness  ? 
We  cannot  say  why  it  is  ;  but  it  is  an  undoubted 
fact  that  the  purest  and  best  among  mankind  have 
wandered  about  in  sorrow  for  the  deserved  sufferings 
of  the  vile  and  outcast.  It  was  so  with  Chaitanya 
of  Nuddea,  the  prophet  of  love,  who  wept  aloud  at 
"the  condition  of  the  creature."  It  was  so  with  Sidd- 
hartha,  whose  tender  humanity  refused  the  blessings, 
of  Nirvana,  when  so  many  fellow-beings  were  in  the 
misery  of  carnal  Desire.  And  unspeakably  more  so- 
was  it  in  the  case  of  "  the  Man  of  Sorrows."  WhcR 
the  perpetrators  of  iniquity,  used  to  receive  the  sanc- 
tion of  kindred  guilt,  or  the  stolid  apathy  of  society 
at  large,  or,  worse  still,  the  cruel,  unrelenting  penal- 
ties of  human  law  and  justice,  suddenly  come  to 
face  the  unfamiliar  fact  of  affectionate  holiness  ago- 
nized at  the  spectacle  of  their  guilt,  they  are  amazed 


148  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

with  a  strange  experience.  The  shock  of  that  ex- 
perience calls  out  the  best  that  is  left  in  them.  It 
not  unfrequently  converts  them.  In  the  midst  of  his 
own  peace  and  blessedness,  the  Son  of  God  is  cruci- 
fied on  the  cross  of  others'  guilt.  He  suffers  sorrow 
which  others  have  deserved.  Those  who  realize  that 
feel  mysteriously  affected  —  nay,  they  cannot  but  feel 
renovated  and  healed  —  at  the  thought.  Oh  that 
we  could  feel  that  the  spirit  of  Infinite  Goodness, 
incarnated  in  the  best  and  purest  among  ourselves, 
profoundly  grieves  at  our  downfall  and  misery! 
Oh  that  we  could  feel  Christ  weeps  and  intercedes 
for  us  in  heaven ;  that  other  Christs  living  in  the 
world,  in  whom  the  healing  Jesus  has  found  a  resur- 
rection, mourn  for  our  misdeeds,  and  wait  for  our 
return  !  Atonement  is  the  perfection  of  sympathy. 
Regeneration  is  the  success  of  aggressive,  aggrieved, 
conquering  love.  The  authorized  healer  is  a  man 
of  mesmeric  genius.  Others'  ailments  touch  him 
with  vicarious  suffering.  His  power  touches  others 
with  curative,  quickening,  reviving  grace.  It  is  the 
magic  circle  of  fellow-feeling.  It  is  the  diffusive, 
incomprehensible  power  of  blessing  others.  It  is 
the  binding  force  of  the  Church,  and  the  fraternity. 
Let  men  awaken  to  sympathy,  and  they  will  convert 
the  world.  Let  men  awaken  to  love,  and  they  will 
heal  mankind. 


THE    HEALING    CHRIST  I49 

The  power  of  physical  healing  by  pure,  tender 
sympathy,  by  warm,  active,  impulsive,  self-forgetful 
faith,  is  discounted  in  these  days  of  gross  material 
medication.  But,  in  point  of  fact,  true  spiritual  min- 
istry has  a  remedial  value  both  to  the  mind  and  body. 
We  have  often  delighted  in  the  thought  of  the  holy 
preceptor  who  is  skilled  in  the  art  of  healing  both 
the  heart  diseased  and  the  aching  weary  flesh.  Is 
it  not  a  fact  that  the  groaning  of  the  soul  often 
utters  itself  in  physical  pain  and  prostration,  and  the 
afflicted  flesh  recoils  upon  the  vitality  of  the  inner 
man  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact  of  our  own  experience  that  a 
pure,  heavenly  draught  of  heart-felt  devotion  has 
quenched  the  fire  of  a  rising  fever,  and  relieved  the 
agony  of  disease  ?  Yea,  even  death  itself  is  disarmed 
of  its  fear  and  sting  at  the  name  of  the  heavenly 
Healer.  Such  healing  is  not  violation  of  the  laws 
of  nature,  but  only  deeper  and  truer  conformity  to 
those  laws.  We  can  assure  the  true  believer  that 
there  is  no^  that  hostility  between  the  laws  of  the 
spirit  and  the  body  which  the  faithless  votaries  of 
the  one,  or  the  other,  would  mislead  us  to  imagine. 
Were  we  really  true  to  the  spirit,  we  cannot  but  be 
true  to  the  bodily  life  which  the  Father  of  spirits  has 
himself  given  us.  And  hence,  in  former  days,  and  in 
these  days  also,  men  who  conquered  their  own  minds 


E50  THE   ORIENTAL   CHRIST 

conquered  their  flesh  also,  and  in  conquering  their 
flesh  triumphed  over  the  whole  world.  They  healed 
the  hearts  and  bodily  sufferings  of  those  that  trusted 
in  them.  In  their  presence  all  soreness  and  pain 
were  forgotten.  The  holiness  of  their  look  or  touch 
transformed  the  humble,  the  trustful,  whose  own 
faith  cured  them.  What  talisman  was  there  in  the 
look  or  the  touch  ?  No  carnal,  magical,  miracle- 
working  power  certainly,  but  the  power  of  divine, 
sympathetic  humanity,  an  absorption  in  the  suffering 
of  the  sufferer  through  self-forgetful  inexpressible 
tenderness.  Alas !  it  seems  that  has  gone  out  of 
the  world  altogether.  But  it  has  not  gone  out 
completely.  The  healing  miracles  of  divine  sym- 
pathy and  holy  tenderness  will  have  to  be  worked 
again. 

There  is  a  sect  of  Christians  who  ascribe  all  ten- 
der healing  to  Mary,  the  universal  mother.  They 
thus  unconsciously  hold  the  double  nature,  the 
fatherly  and  motherly  nature  of  the  Christian  divin- 
ity. We  believe  in  a  Mother  God,  we  believe  in 
womanly  as  in  manly  incarnation.  To  us,  certainly, 
their  doctrine  is  not  very  foreign.  But  what  we 
contend  for  is  that,  as  in  God,  so  in  Christ,  so  in 
every  holy  man  called  to  the  ministry,  there  is  both 
a  masculine  and  a  feminine  element.     The  complete- 


THE    HEALING    CHRIST  I5I 

ness  of  all  religious  character  lies  in  the  proportion 
in  which  the  two  elements  are  combined.  It  is  the 
woman  in  us  that  touches  the  woman.  The  most 
loving  of  Hindu  deities  is  invested  with  a  face  of 
feminine  grace.  The  "twofold  image"  of  the  Vaish- 
nava  is  the  ideal  complement  of  manly  and  womanly 
affection.  Where  Christ  is  identified  with  the  mas- 
culine perfections  of  faith,  holiness,  and  truth,  as  in 
Protestantism,  religion  takes  a  harsh,  abstract,  com- 
bative aspect.  Where  all  the  saving  virtues  of  sym- 
pathy and  love  are  attributed  to  the  Madonna,  prac- 
tical and  personal  homage  is  transferred  to  the 
woman  deity ;  and  the  soothing  functions  of  the 
Son  of  Man  all  but  cease.  But,  when  we  discover 
both  the  paternal  and  maternal  in  God,  and  propor- 
tionately in  all  his  true  incarnations,  we  derive  a 
double  advantage  from  religion,  besides  being  faith- 
ful both  to  the  moral  and  emotional  in  man. 

The  function  of  woman  as  a  healer,  as  a  nurse, 
has  in  all  ages  been  recognized.  But  the  mission  of 
woman  to  teach  man  the  divine  grace  of  sympathy 
has  not  been  so  readily  recognized.  Instead  of  our 
learning  from  her  the  arts  of  healing  affection,  we 
are  trying  to  teach  her  to  imitate  our  hard,  mascu- 
line, muscular  qualities.  I  would  not  object  to 
teaching  woman  our  firmness  and  courage,  if  we  were 


152  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

allowed  to  learn  from  her  how  to  heal  care,  pain, 
and  sorrow.  When  the  man  learns  to  cease  to  be 
masculine  in  the  presence  of  woman,  but  becomes 
womanly  in  the  beatitude  of  tender,  refined  sympa- 
thy, then  he  can  cure  the  sufferings  of  all  humanity. 
It  is  curious,  however,  that  in  Christian  art  all 
angelic  forms  are  represented  as  more  feminine 
than  masculine.  And  still  so  strong  is  popular 
prejudice  that  every  mention  of  God  as  the  Supreme 
Mother  is  regarded  as  improper.  The  virtues  as- 
cribed to  Mary,  the  mother,  the  healer,  the  merciful, 
the  sympathetic,  indicate  that  Jesus  had  other  rela- 
tions to  society  than  are  generally  recognized.  Let, 
therefore,  Mary  merge  in  Christ.  Let  woman  and 
man  combine  to  make  the  perfection  of  manhood. 
For  all  genuine  ministry  is  twofold.  It  seeks  not 
only  the  spiritual,  but  the  personal  and  bodily  wel- 
fare of  the  disciples.  The  ministry  of  healing  is 
often  set  aside,  or  finds  a  formal  recognition.  In  its 
absence,  genuine  interest  in  the  flock  becomes 
deficient,  and  spiritual  ministration  lacks  in  reality 
and  power.  A  distance  grows  up  between  the  shep- 
herd and  his  flock.  Perfect  confidence  is  seldom 
established.  The  pulpit  deals  in  respectabilities 
which  answer  no  true  want.  The  pew  pays  its  rate, 
and  considers  its  duty  ended.     Where  is  the  healing 


THE   HEALING   CHRIST  1 53 

of  body  and  mind  ?  Where  is  the  balm  of  comfort, 
the  touch  of  sympathy,  and  the  cure  of  soul  for 
which  the  poor  looked  up  to  Christ  ? 

Call  it  mother,  call  it  woman,  call  it  Christ,  or  call 
it  Mary,  it  is  nothing  more  than  the  ineffable  sympa- 
thy and  tenderness  of  the  nature  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
That  is  the  secret  of  all  healing.  By  far  the  greatest 
portion  of  Christ's  recorded  miracles  relate  to  heal- 
ing. And,  what  is  strange,  the  Healer  bids  the  healed 
to  go,  and  tell  no  man  of  his  cure.  It  is  possible 
he  knew  men  enough  to  suspect  that  these  cures, 
if  reported,  would  excite  profane  curiosity,  and  igno- 
rant superstition,  much  more  than  faith  in  the  power 
of  divine  humanity.  If  so,  then,  alas !  those  wise, 
modest  precautions  have  proved  very  nearly  fruit- 
less. Men  have  exalted  the  physical  miraculousness 
over  the  holy,  humane  sympathy.  And,  hence, 
though  they  have  gained  in  the  power  of  credulity, 
which  has  both  its  good  and  its  bad  sides,  they  have 
not  gained  in  the  power  to  cure.  The  real  healing 
of  the  miracles  has  been  lost,  and  their  husks  only 
remain.  Now,  in  these  days,  the  science  of  medicine 
has  so  far  improved  as  to  be  able  to  work  miracles 
of  cure  without  the  aid  of  religion.  We  wish 
heartily  the  unexplored  and  really  vast  powers  of 
religious   faith   should    be   combined   with    medical 


154  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

wisdom.  But,  before  such  a  blessed  combination 
actually  takes  place,  must  religion  give  up  the  holy- 
ministry  of  healing  altogether  ?  No :  let  us  in  sea- 
sons of  sickness  and  suffering  bring  to  bear  the 
power  of  our  devotions  and  faith  upon  our  weak- 
ened flesh.  Let  us  exchange  the  divine  remedy  of 
mutual  sympathy,  and  brotherly  tenderness.  There 
is  before  us  the  assurance,  if  this  does  not  com- 
pletely cure  us  of  our  bodily  ailments,  it  will  at  least 
cure  us  of  the  much  deeper  and  more  inveterate 
ailments  which  afflict  the  heart  and  conscience. 
For,  verily,  there  is  much  more  wonderful  miracle 
in  the  cure  of  the  sinful,  lustful  nature,  dead  and 
buried  in  unholiness,  than  in  the  cure  of  bodily 
suffering  from  a  temporary  suspension  of  bodily 
power. 


CHAPTER   X. 
THE   FEASTING    CHRIST. 

"D  EFLECT  upon  the  pathos  of  Christ  calling 
himself  "the  bridegroom."  One  feels  dis- 
posed to  exclaim  that  he  married  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing. But  no,  there  was  deep  enjoyment  in  his  sim- 
ple life  ;  and,  what  is  more,  this  enjoyment  was  not 
only  of  things  celestial  and  spiritual,  but  also  of  the 
blessed  beneficences  of  God  in  this  our  common 
earthly  life.  The  dew  and  the  sunshine,  the  seed 
times  and  the  harvests,  the  fields,  pastures,  flocks, 
and  flowers  were  to  him  a  perpetual  festival.  His 
eyes  dwelt,  and  wandered  in  the  midst  of  them,  his 
ears  drank  their  music,  his  heart  feasted  upon  their 
poetry,  his  imagination  extracted  sweet,  everlasting 
metaphors  from  them.  Who  knows  how  many  times 
he  might  have  sung  internally,  or  burst  forth  in  the 
Psalmist's  utterances  :  "  Thou  hast  established  the 
borders  of  the  earth  ;  thou  hast  made  winter  and 
summer.  Thou  crownest  the  year  with  goodness, 
and  thy  paths  drop  fatness.      They  drop  upon  the 


156  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

pastures  of  the  wilderness,  and  the  little  hills  rejoice 
on  every  side.  The  pastures  are  clothed  with  flocks, 
and  the  valleys  also  are  covered  with  corn.  They 
shout  for  joy,  they  also  sing.  Behold  the  sons  of 
men  go  forth  to  their  labor,  and  the  field  yieldeth 
food  for  them  and  their  children.  They  reap  every 
one  of  them  from  his  cornfield  ;  they  gather  every 
one  his  vintage  from  the  vineyard," 

Christ  was  the  child  of  nature.  His  spirit  had 
the  poetic,  pastoral  genius  of  the  primitive  Hebrew. 
He  spent  his  nights  with  the  silent  stars  on  the 
mountain  top,  he  preached  on  the  shingly  margin 
of  the  Galilean  lake,  he  spake  from  the  blue  ripples 
of  its  breezy  surface.  Nature  was  his  bridal  cham- 
ber, and  Christ  was  the  bridegroom !  He  wor- 
shipped, he  meditated,  he  found  his  occupation,  and 
his  simple  joy,  walked,  stood,  or  sat  amid  the 
bounties  and  solitudes  of  nature.  There  is  for 
every  one  a  festive  converse  with  the  silent  elo- 
quence of  this  mysterious  universe.  There  is  a 
joyous  suggestion  in  sky  and  air.  For  the  exiled 
and  outcast  there  is  a  benediction  in  the  calmness 
of  morning,  and  evening  twilight.  Every  land- 
scape over  plain  and  mountain  is  an  everlasting 
possession  to  the  C}'e  purged  from  covetousness. 
Every  song  of  bird,  breeze,  or  man  is  a  feast  to  the 


THE    FEASTING    CHRIST  157 

Son  of  God  :  all  wealth  of  pure  laughter  and  inno- 
cent merriment  is  undoubtedly  his.  He  is  happy 
with  the  rich,  happy  with  the  poor,  happy  with 
the  saint,  and  happy  with  the  child.  Christ  is  joy- 
ous as  the  bridegroom. 

Did  not  the  saints  and  sages  hold  high  festival 
with  nature  in  all  lands  and  nations  ?  Forest,  hill- 
side, river-bank,  were  haunted  and  sacred  to  them. 
Midnight  was  the  time  of  profound  devotions.  Men 
have  disenchanted  nature  of  the  magic  of  primeval 
spirituality.  They  repair  to  the  woods  to  shoot  the 
singing  birds,  or  to  kill  them  for  their  plumage. 
They  desecrate  the  river-banks  to  hook  and  net  the 
finny  tribe.  Or,  if  they  are  very  solemnly  inclined, 
the  chain,  compass,  and  sextant  are  the  implements 
of  their  worship.  Nature  is  submerged  in  mathemat- 
ics. Measurement  and  exactitude  swallow  all  emo- 
tion. The  fields  have  no  festival,  the  sky  has  no 
consolation.  Let  the  spirit  of  the  feasting  Christ 
once  more  draw  us  outside  ourselves,  to  rejoice  in 
the  plenitudes  of  beauty  and  grace  in  the  world. 
Let  the  presence  of  God  be  rehabilitated  in  the 
throne  of  the  universe. 

"They  come  and  say  unto  him,  Why  do  the 
disciples  of  J  hn  and  of  the  Pharisees  fast,  but  thy 
disciples  fast  not  ? "     This  must  have  been  a  serious 


158  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

difficulty  to  the  minds  of  many  honest  observers  of 
the  new  message.  Every  dawning  dispensation  of 
religious  truth  is  apt  to  be  judged  by  old  standards. 
Fasting  and  asceticism  have  been  the  two  recog- 
nized tests  of  spiritual  accomplishment  in  the  East. 
One  cause  why  the  New  Dispensation  of  the 
Brahmo  Soma]  has  not  found  as  ready  acceptance 
in  India  as  we  could  wish,  is  that  we  refuse  to 
conform  to  the  old  rules  of  orthodox  piety ;  namely, 
ascetic  hermitage  and  retirement  from  all  household 
practical  life.  That  Christ  accepted  the  spirit  of 
fasting  and  asceticism  who  can  doubt  .-•  The  forty 
days'  fast  is  one  of  the  most  significant  chapters 
of  his  life.  But  Christ's  asceticism  and  fasting 
were  of  entirely  a  new  order.  It  was  self-renuncia- 
tion for  others'  good.  It  was  rigid  abstinence  amid 
the  abundance  of  outward  resources.  It  was  a  fast 
in  feasting.  It  was  the  universal  law  of  temperance 
and  self-deprivation  which  all  men  are  bound  to^ 
practise.  The  Johannic  and  the  Mosaic  dispen- 
sation was  for  saints,  for  men  who  made  a  preten- 
sion to  prophetic  character,  for  the  priestly  order. 
Christ's  dispensation  was  to  call  sinners  to  repent- 
ance. The  spirit  was  new,  and  the  form  required  to 
be  new.  It  would  not  do  for  him  to  embody  the 
law   of    chaste    moderation  in  the    rigidity  of  Phar- 


THE   FEASTING   CHRIST  1 59 

isaic  observances,  "  No  man  seweth  a  piece  of 
new  cloth  on  an  old  garment ;  else  the  new  piece 
that  filled  it  up  taketh  away  from  the  old,  and  the 
rent  is  made  worse.  And  no  man  putteth  new 
wine  into  old  bottles,  else  the  new  wine  doth  burst 
the  bottles,  and  the  wine  is  spilled."  The  new 
spirit  of  practical  piety  then,  which  Christ  came  ta 
embody,  demanded  a  new  form  ;  and  that  form  man- 
ifested itself  not  only  in  orthodox  fasts,  but  in  occa- 
sional religious  feasting. 

The  East  excels  in  the  number  and  grandeur  of  its 
feastings.  Full  one-half  of  the  most  ancient  of  the 
Vedas  is  dedicated  to  the  laws  and  methods  of  reg- 
ulating the  consecrated  festivals.  It  is  the  refresh- 
ment and  refilling  of  body  and  mind.  Feasting  is 
symbolical  of  human  brotherhood.  The  rich  and  the 
humble,  the  wise  and  the  illiterate,  forget  the  ine- 
qualities of  circumstance  when  they  sit  side  by  side 
in  the  holy  festival.  The  accursed  custom  of  caste 
is  found,  even  in  the  most  liberal  lands  and  nations, 
to  tear  asunder  the  relations  of  natural  brotherhood. 
Who  can  say  how  much  of  the  social  and  moral 
asperity  between  class  and  class  could  be  allayed, 
how  much  solid  practical  reformation  effected,  if 
the  mighty  and  the  noble  would  deign  to  sit  at  a 
common  feast  with   the   low  and   the   unfortunate  ? 


l60  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

But  the  old  Pharisaic  pride  intervenes.  Feasting  is 
select  and  exclusive.  And,  if  any  man  of  Christlike 
love  and  condescension  mixes  with  the  down-trodden 
poor,  the  charge  is  at  once  laid  against  him  that 
"he  eats  and  drinks  with  the  publicans  and  sin- 
ners." But  Christ  knew  the  profound  meaning  of 
a  common  feast. 

The  commonness  of  enjoyment  is  the  secret  of 
brotherly  love.  Feasting  is  a  small  thing,  but  no 
great  religious  community  has  ever  got  on  without 
a  common  meal.  We  cannot  be  fed  upon  rebukes, 
sermons,  and  tears  always.  Christ  rebuked,  he 
taught,  he  wept ;  but  he  ate  and  drank  with  those 
whom  he  taught  and  rebuked.  There  is  more  moral 
and  spiritual  efficacy  in  a  hearty  meal  partaken  to- 
gether in  simple  affection  than  in  mighty  conclaves 
and  controversies.  Cut  away  from  the  sacraments 
of  society,  hated  and  renounced  by  the  sanctimo- 
nious Brahmins  of  hollow  Orthodoxy,  herding  to- 
gether in  vulgar  occupations,  there  stood  the  pub- 
licans, as  the  sudras  stand  in  India.  The  Son  of 
Man  felt  that  he  "came  not  to  call  the  righteous," 
but  to  seek  and  save  the  lost.  Is  it  possible  he 
did  not  reflect  on  the  marvellous  effect  his  heart- 
felt sympathy  would  produce,  when,  passing  by,  he 
saw  the   publican  sitting  at  the  receipt  of   custom. 


THE    FEASTING    CHRIST  l6l 

and,  in  the  excess  of  his  gracious  love,  whispered  to 
him,  "Follow  -me"?  What  was  the  feeling  of  the 
poor  pariah,  when  the  holy,  young,  mysterious  Rabbi, 
whom  multitudes  adored,  whom  John,  the  prophet, 
himself  honored,  in  whom  the  nation  looked  for- 
ward for  the  manifestation  of  the  promised  Mes- 
siah, accosted  him, —  nay,  not  only  so,  but  went 
to  his  house,  and  sat  to  partake  of  the  unconse- 
crated  meal  ?  The  amazement  of  the  privileged 
hierarchs  was  not  greater  than  that  of  the  down- 
trodden outcasts  who  flocked  to  sit  around  him.  In 
that  feasting  at  Levi's  house,  he  won  the  poor  and 
alienated  the  priests  forever.  It  showed  his  status 
and  mission  :  it  established  his  community.  In  that 
act  of  feasting,  the  Christian  Church  became  the 
Church  of  the  poor  raised  up,  and  of  sinners  saved. 
It  separated  itself  forever  from  the  self-righteous,  the 
proud,  the  unspiritual.  It  would  be  well  if  Christian 
missionaries  in  foreign  lands  would  eat  the  bread  of 
the  people  whom  they  go  to  convert,  eat  it  from 
a  common  table,  eat  it  in  the  unrefined,  humble 
ways  of  the  people,  as  Christ  ate  at  the  festive 
board  of  the  publicans.  I  know  Roman  Catholic 
missionaries  have  done  so,  and  won  the  hearts  of 
whole  tribes  of  men.  Let  all  classes  of  men,  high 
and  low,  be  occasionally  invited  in  the  name  of  re- 


l62  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

ligion  to  partake  of  a  sacred  meal,  and  let  the  fes- 
tivity be  a  medium  to  spread  the  holiness,  faith,  and 
love  of  the  best,  and  permeate  the  assembly. 

Feasting  is  the  gift  of  God.  The  feast  which 
nature  prepares  for  all  sentient  beings  comes  from 
the  preparation  of  a  bountiful  providence.  And 
human  feasting,  in  oriental  countries,  is  God-ap- 
pointed. Christ's  model  prayer  is  for  the  gift  of 
the  daily  bread.  And,  when  that  bread  came,  he  did 
not  take  it  contemptuously,  or  as  a  matter  of  course, 
but  with  gratitude  and  rejoicing,  as  a  feast  prepared 
for  him  in  the  wilderness.  The  simplicity  of  faith 
delights  in  every  good  thing  which  the  Father  gives^ 
though  it  never  demands  or  expects  any.  When 
meat,  or  drink,  or  raiment  comes,  it  fills  the 
soul  with  childlike  gladness.  While  the  prosperous 
pine  in  imagined  languors,  while  the  miser  decays 
in  anxious  penury,  and  the  lavish  and  luxurious 
feel  cloyed  in  satiety,  Christ  holds  his  daily  festi- 
vals over  his  humble  bread,  and  gives  thanksgiv- 
ings from  the  singleness  of  his  heart. 

The  feasting  Christ  incarnates  the  spirit  in  which 
the  well-regulated  bounties  of  Providence  are  to  be 
received.  Fast  days  and  Sabbath  days  make  no 
difference  to  him,  when  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  God's 
commandments  is  within.     And,  when  his  disciples 


THE    FEASTING    CHRIST  163 

are  accused  of  breaking  divine  ordinance  in  the 
matter  of  food,  he  excuses  them  by  saying  that 
even  David  himself  ate  the  shew-bread.  The  evil 
disposed  and  slanderous  charged  him  with  gross 
laxity ;  but  he  came  not  to  destroy  human  nature, 
but  to  exalt  and  consecrate  it.  He  uttered  his 
dreadful  rebukes  against  the  fulness,  the  laughter, 
and  the  wealth  of  the  world  ;  but  he  boldly  proclaimed 
the  justification  of  his  disciples,  when  they  gave  up 
fasting,  in  the  festive  parable  of  the  bride  chamber. 
"  As  long  as  they  have  the  bridegroom,  they  cannot 
fast.  But  the  days  will  come  when  the  bridegroom 
shall  be  taken  away  from  them,  and  then  they  shall 
fast  in  those  days."  There  are  times  when  feasting 
is  as  good  as  fasting.  Times  there  are  when  feast- 
ing is  better  than  fasting.  Because  abstinence  and 
enjoyment  come  alike  from  God.  Both  bring  their 
inspiration,  both  answer  great  purposes.  Thus, 
Christ  feasted  and  fasted  every  day. 

Domestic  festivals,  such  as  marriages,  births, 
and  various  other  auspicious  occasions,  are  blessed 
occasions  of  union  and  congratulation  in  the  East. 
Religion  fastens  itself  on  them.  False  enthu- 
siasts and  heartless  fanatics  decry  them.  These 
centres  of  household  and  social  fellowship  form  a 
great  part  of   religion   in  common  life.     Unnatural 


164  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

religion  and  harsh  formalism  discourage  them.  But 
the  humanity  and  sweet  sense  of  Christ  knew  their 
value.  He  not  only  presented  himself  at  the  mar- 
riage celebration,  but  contributed  to  increase  the 
festivity  of  the  occasion.  He  fostered  the  spirit 
of  ceremonial  observances  within  rational  and  due 
limits.  The  great  tendency  of  our  times  is  to  destroy 
the  rituals  of  religion,  and  multiply  the  ceremonies 
of  eating,  drinking,  and  making  merry  with  the 
other  sex.  The  household  has  no  opportunity  to 
order  its  preparations  for  the  moral  and  spiritual 
welfare  of  its  inmates.  Dinner  parties,  dancing 
parties,  and  the  uncounted  frivolities  of  a  sensual 
civilization  are  allowed  to  drive  the  solemnities  of 
home  and  religion  out  of  recognition.  The  holy 
man  is  honored  in  the  Eastern  household  to  pro- 
nounce his  blessing  on  auspicious  occasions.  The 
scene  of  marriage  is  fragrant  with  the  incense  and 
flowers  dedicated  to  religion.  And,  if  the  spirit  of 
Christ  with  his  disciples  should  descend  to  the 
domestic  hearth  while  we  are  celebrating  our  simple 
festivals,  will  it  not  be  the  addition  of  joy  to  joy? 

Nor  is  that  all.  Jesus  felt  he  was  to  be  with 
his  disciples  but  for  a  short  time.  United  to  them 
with  all  the  associations  of  prayer,  fasting,  medita- 
tion, and  counsel,  his   loving   nature   longed   to  be 


THE    FEASTING    CHRIST  16$ 

associated  with  them  in  those  earthly  scenes  which 
make  the  relations  of  this  world  so  sweet  and  memo- 
rable. In  the  commonest  acts  of  life,  very  profound 
relations  are  often  perpetuated.  The  preceptor,  who 
can  interweave  his  influences  with  the  daily  routine 
of  existence,  has  seldom  any  chance  to  be  forgotten. 
Jesus  shared  his  meat  and  drink,  his  occupations  and 
recreations,  with  his  humble  associates.  To  observe 
him,  to  imitate  him,  was  the  best  means  of  consecrat- 
ing their  existence.  Christ  loved  to  eat  and  drink 
with  his  disciples,  to  teach  them  the  rules  of  enjoy- 
ment and  abstinence.  He  desired  to  be  remembered 
in  their  meals,  when  their  minds  found  relaxation  and 
rest  after  the  arduous  labors  of  the  day.  He  taught 
them  the  great  duty  of  thanksgiving  at  their  meals. 
It  was  the  joyous  and  simple  communion  of  the  poor. 
It  was  the  sacrament  of  every-day  life.  It  was 
that  by  which  he  knew  he  would  have  the  liveliest 
hold  upon  their  minds.  If  he  was  glad  to  enjoy  his 
meals  with  his  beloved,  he  was  glad  to  give  feasts 
and  feed  thousands  with  the  commonest  fare.  His 
feeding  them  with  the  bread  of  the  body  was  typical 
of  feeding  them  with  a  more  celestial  fare.  But  this 
usage  of  oriental  saints  to  feed  large  numbers  of 
people  out  of  their  scanty  resources  is  universal. 
The  poor  who  are  fed  never  reflect  on  the  quality 


1 66  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

of  the  fare,  but  feel  sanctified  to  eat  of  the  bounty  of 
the  holy  man.  Who  knows  but,  in  the  case  of  Christ, 
the  five  thousand  were  not  exalted  by  saving  truths 
to  support  their  souls  also?  Who  knows  how  he 
symbolized  that  great  feast  ?  Perhaps  among  us 
just  now  there  is  no  want  of  feasting.  But  there  is 
great  want  of  converting  the  feast  of  the  flesh  into 
the  flow  of  soul.  Festivals  require  to  be  symbolized. 
Eating  and  drinking  demand  to  be  divested  of  their 
gross  carnal  meaning.  Feasts  do  not  exalt  us,  but 
make  us  heavy  and  drag  us  down  to  drowsy  idleness. 
The  feasting  Christ  has  typified  his  spirit  in  the  holy 
meal  perpetuated  by  him  in  the  world.  Does  not 
the  communion  table  in  every  Christian  church  bear 
conclusive  testimony  to  that .''  Bread  and  wine  sig- 
nify objects  very  different  from  what  they  them- 
selves are.  While  at  the  feast  Christ  ate,  he  ate 
spiritual  food,  ate  of  the  eternal  word  which  was 
incarnated  in  him  ;  whilQ  he  drank,  he  drank  of  the 
enthusiasm  of  love,  the  kindling  flame  of  high  and 
holy  impulses,  which  made  him  burn  through  the  brief 
period  of  his  life,  like  a  celestial  light  whose  orbit 
was  in  some  higher  sphere  than  this  our  earthly  sky. 
All  feast  to  him  was  the  feast  of  soul.  The  outer 
festival  only  foreshadowed  the  inner  intoxication 
of  joy. 


THE    FEASTING    CHRIST  16/ 

What  free  spontaneity  must  there  have  been  for 
those  beloved  early  disciples  to  feel  festive  glory  in 
the  presence  of  Christ !  Set  free  from  the  harsh, 
narrow  despotism  of  the  Pharisees,  from  the  bonds 
of  sin  and  remorse,  from  the  cares  and  anxieties  of 
worldly  life,  their  burdens  borne  by  the  Master's 
mysterious  power,  their  yoke  made  light  by  sweet 
love  to  him,  partaking  to  their  hearts'  content  of 
his  holiness,  peace,  and  wisdom,  they  are  full  of 
frolic  and  festivity,  even  on  the  Sabbath  day.  The 
envious  priests  were  ill-pleased  with  all  this  delight, 
and  clothed  their  complaint  in  sanctimonious  disguise. 
Jesus  saw  the  present  and  the  future, —  the  heedless, 
joyous  present  of  his  trustful  apostles,  their  future 
sadness  and  martyrdom.  It  gave  him  a  melancholy 
satisfaction,  like  the  glow  of  a  winter  sunset.  He 
wanted  them  to  rejoice  as  long  as  they  could,  as 
long  as  he  was  with  them.  He  heightened  and 
chastened  their  rejoicing,  and  crowned  their  feast 
by  adding  to  it  his  profound  gladness.  Was  not 
the  ministry  full  of  anxieties  and  sorrows  .''  Was 
not  the  labor,  with  its  fatigues,  great  ?  Were  not 
the  poverty,  the  privations  it  brought,  the  disci- 
pline, the  asceticism,  heavy  to  be  borne  ?  If  the 
grace  of  the  Father  occasionally  granted  intervals  of 
respite,  the  disciples  and  the  Master  joined  in  holy 


l68  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

festival.  Darker  days  were  coming  apace.  Clouds 
were  rising  on  the  horizon.  The  time  of  heart- 
rending separation  loomed  in  the  near  prospect. 
Death  beckoned  to  the  Son  of  Man  to  prepare  be- 
times. And,  then,  did  he  not  foresee  the  bread  of 
the  disciples  would  be  their  irremediable  sorrows,  and 
their  drink  would  be  their  own  tears,  that  they  must 
weep  and  watch  as  he  did,  till,  like  him,  they  passed 
away  into  his  glory  .-•  While  the  brief  day  of  mutual 
union  lasted,  therefore,  he  grudged  them  not  a  few 
intervals  of  freedom  and  mirth.  It  was  like  the  mu- 
tual felicitation  of  a  household  on  the  eve  of  a  final 
parting, —  the  evening  songs  of  birds  met  on  the  tree 
at  sunset,  to  depart,  each  to  a  separate  destiny,  at  the 
early  dawn.  Yes,  there  is  a  melancholy  grandeur  in 
the  feasting  Christ  before  he  mounted  the  throne  of 
his  cross.  There  is  a  sweet,  mellow  lustre  about 
that  heavenly  bridegroom  rejoicing  with  his  simple 
children  of  the  bridal  cham  .r.  As  infancy  and  early 
youth  prepare  us  for  the  troubles  and  trials  of  man- 
hood, as  the  festivities  of  the  marriage  day  prepare 
us  for  the  sorrows  and  responsibilities  of  the  house- 
hold, and  life  anoints  us  for  death,  so  Christ  feasted 
with  his  disciples,  that  they  might  be  ready  for  the 
days  when  the  bridegroom  should  have  gone  away, 
and  the  children  of  the  bridal  chamber  should  have 
to  mourn  in  fasting  and  patience. 


THE    FEASTING    CHRIST  169 

Let  US  then  not  be  ashamed  of  our  festivals.  Let 
us  solemnly  celebrate,  with  rites  and  ceremonies,  our 
seasons  of  joyous  event.  If  the  weeping  Christ  has 
taught  us  the  service  of  sorrow,  the  feasting  Christ 
has  taught  us  the  service  of  rejoicing  and  gratitude. 
If  the  Man  of  Sorrows  found,  in  this  hard  world, 
his  bridal  chamber,  and  was  joyous  like  a  bride- 
groom, eating  and  drinking,  giving  meat  and  drink 
to  others,  why  should  we,  with  our  more  numerous 
enjoyments,  mourn  to  manifest  our  ingratitude  .■* 
The  feasting  Christ  is  a  unique  figure,  side  by  side 
with  his  other,  and  more  tragical  attitudes.  But 
Christ  would  not  be  coextensive  with  human  nature, 
if  he  did  not  combine  fasts  and  feasts  in  that  many- 
sided  discipline  which  gives  perfection  to  the  diverse 
faculties  of  man's  heart. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   PARTING   CHRIST. 

T  F  any  one  wishes  to  behold  a  relation  of  strange 
love  dissolving  into  the  sad  sunset  of  a  celestial 
farewell, —  a  farewell  in  which  what  was  best,  deepest, 
purest,  sweetest  in  the  soul  was  poured  out,  as  never 
before  nor  since, —  let  him  turn  to  the  parting  Christ. 
There,  on  the  serene  and  woody  summit  of  Olivet,  in 
the  humble  house  of  Simon  the  leper,  Jesus  sat 
calmly  contemplating  his  death,  the  time  for  which 
had  now  come  in  solemn  certainty,  and  was  to  take 
place  in  two  days  more.  He  has  just  finished  the 
clear  awful  warning  to  his  disciples  of  the  approach 
of  the  end.  The  echo  of  those  words  —  "  Take  heed, 
watch  and  pray,  for  ye  know  not  when  the  time  is  " — 
was  still  ringing  in  their  bewildered  ears,  and  the 
Master  was  merged  in  the  depth  of  his  own  forecast. 
In  contrast  to  all  this,  the  sacred  city  of  Jerusalem, 
which  lay  down  below  on  the  slopes  of  that  very  hill, 
with  its  golden  cupolas,  and  polished  columns  of 
marble,  was  full  of  the  noise,   music,  and  mighty 


THE    PARTING    CHRIST  I /I 

preparations  of  the  feast  of  the  Passover.  It  was 
the  most  memorable  of  all  the  yearly  national  feasts 
which  the  Jews  kept.  It  was  to  commemorate 
the  passing  out  from  Egypt,  the  land  of  bondage. 
Henceforward,  in  the  same  typical  sense,  it  was 
to  become  the  most  memorable  feast  of  all  man- 
kind. In  the  mean  time,  an  incident  occurred  which 
suddenly  brought  the  little  company  to  a  sense  of 
their  position.  A  woman,  companion  of  Mary  and 
Martha,  one  of  a  band  perpetually  devoted  to  the 
service  of  Jesus,  quietly  drew  near,  and  poured  out 
a  box  of  the  most  precious  ointment  on  his  lowly 
head.  It  jarred  upon  the  disciples  as  out  of  season, 
and  also  as  out  of  proportion  to  the  means  at  their 
disposal, —  they  not  having  the  place,  nor  perhaps 
the  wherewithal  to  procure  their  Passover  meal,  she 
running  to  the  expense  of  three  hundred  pence  to 
waste  a  box  of  spikenard  ointment  on  the  person  of 
Jesus.  The  disciples  grumbled  at  the  extravagance, 
and  the  humble  devotee  stood  rebuked  and  abashed, 
until  the  gentle  voice  of  the  Master  was  heard  to  give 
the  assurance  of  indescribable  pathos, —  "Let  her 
alone  :  why  do  ye  trouble  her  ?  She  hath  anointed 
my  body  for  the  burial."  The  death,  then,  which  he 
saw,  in  all  its  misery,  drawing  so  near,  was  to  him 
his   coronation ;  and  the  loving  hand  which  uncon- 


1/2  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

sciously  offered  a  melancholy  tribute  to  that  event 
wrought  a  work  whose  fame  has  spread  wheresoever 
the  gospel  of  Christ  has  been  preached.  In  Eastern 
lands,  the  person  whose  death  is  anticipated  is 
treated  with  festive  honor ;  and  Jesus,  who  inwardly 
looked  up  to  heaven  at  this  critical  time,  felt  that 
the  loving  Father  had,  through  that  humble  woman, 
poured  upon  him  a  parting  honor,  a  final  anointment. 
When,  therefore,  they  spoke  of  distributing  its  value 
among  the  poor,  he  feelingly  exclaimed,  "  The  poor 
ye  have  always,  but  me  ye  have  not  always." 

Contrast  once  more  with  this  melancholy  tender- 
ness the  dark  cruelty  of  the  scribes  and  chief  priests 
who,  amid  the  gathering  festivities  and  joyful  prep- 
arations of  the  sacred  city,  were  laying  careful 
plans  as  to  how  they  might  craftily  take  him,  and 
destroy  him,  so  as  to  minimize  the  risk  of  a  popular 
uproar,  and  induce  the  deluded  crowd  to  take  a  share 
in  the  guilty  tragedy.  But  Jesus  foresaw  all,  was 
prepared  for  all,  and  calmly  went  to  meet  it.  The 
disciples  had  gone  a  little  before  to  beg  the  hospi- 
tality of  a  virtuous  man  who  would  let  them  eat  the 
Passover  in  his  house ;  and,  in  the  evening,  Jesus 
came  down  with  the  twelve  to  the  place  in  the  city 
of  Jerusalem.  The  table  was  laid,  the  meal  begun, 
the  sad  memorable  supper  eaten,  amid  silent  tears 


THE    PARTING    CHRIST  I73 

and  unspeakable  emotions,  painted  by  artists,  and 
described  in  the  voice  of  faith,  times  without  num- 
ber. The  hour  had  come,  and  Jesus  thought  it  was 
no  longer  necessary  to  bear  in  his  solitary  soul  the 
burden  of  oppressive  anticipation.  So,  casting  his 
eyes  ujjon  the  little  band,  he  suddenly  exclaimed, 
"Verily,  one  of  you  shall  betray  me!"  All  the 
mournful  warnings  and  exhortations  uttered  on  the 
hill-slope  at  Bethany  that  morning,  the  sadness  of 
the  affectionate  anointing,  the  anxiety,  ominous 
calmness,  and  sorrow  had  sufficiently  dispirited  the 
poor  disciples  ;  and,  when  unexpectedly  they  heard 
that  one  of  them  should  betray  him  to  death,  it 
startled  them  like  a  thunderbolt.  Their  fear,  con- 
fusion, and  sorrow  knew  no  bounds.  They  asked 
questions,  made  surmises,  and  looked  aghast.  In 
the  mean  while,  the  traitor  had  gone  out  to  do  his 
work,  the  scene  was  preparing  in  the  darkness  of 
the  night  in  the  house  of  Caiaphas,  and  Jesus  saw 
there  was  no  time  to  lose.  So  he  sadly  went 
through  that  profound  act  of  farewell  which  has 
symbolized  the  whole  character  of  the  religion  he 
has  bequeathed  to  us.  The  first  three  Gospels  speak 
in  very  nearly  the  same  words  of  a  simple  ceremony. 
He  took  bread  and  gave  it  to  his  disciples,  saying, 
"Take,  eat :  this  is  my  body  which  is  given  for  you." 


174  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

He  took  a  cup  of  wine  and  gave  it  to  them,  saying, 
"  This  is  my  blood  of  the  new  testament  which  is 
shed  for  many.  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me." 
The  Gospel  of  John  mentions  that  after  the  meal  he 
laid  aside  his  garments,  took  a  basin  and  towel,  and 
began  to  wash  his  disciples'  feet.  Both  the  state- 
ments are  in  strict  conformity  with  Eastern  customs^ 
and  the  spirit  of  the  occasion. 

THE    lord's    supper. 

The  figure  of  the  parting  Christ,  as  he  institutes 
the  sacrament  of  bread  and  wine,  is  that  of  a  father 
who  calls  his  sorrowing  sons  to  receive  the  precious 
inheritance  he  has  reserved  for  them  till  the  last 
moment.  The  inheritance  is  the  immortal  treasure 
of  spiritual  character.  The  gospel  accounts  bear 
testimony  to  that  inheritance.  The  bodily  Jesus 
departs,  the  wealth  of  his  spirit  remains.  The 
bodily  Christ  departs,  the  presence  of  his  spirit 
remains  in  the  bosom  of  God.  He  invests  that 
spirit  in  his  little  band  of  faithful  followers.  He 
pours  out  his  spirit  into  the  willing  receptacles  of 
their  nature,  makes  himself  the  flesh  of  their  flesh, 
the  blood  of  their  blood.  He  embodies  himself, 
incarnates  himself,  reproduces  himself  in  his  spir- 
itual descendants.      He  thus   acquires   and   imparts 


THE    PARTING    CHRIST  1/5 

immortality  before  he  has  ascended  to  heaven.  The 
symboUcal  farewell  of  the  bread  and  wine  is  the 
transmission  of  the  character  of  the  parting  Christ 
to  the  regenerate  nature  of  future  humanity.  The 
flesh  of  the  flesh  is  a  man's  inner  self,  and  the  blood 
of  his  blood  is  his  moral  character. 

"The  difference  between  subjectivity  and  objec- 
tivity in  religion,"  observes  Keshub,  "  none  compre- 
hended so  thoroughly  as  Jesus,  or  he  would  not  have 
instituted  the  sacramental  rite.  The  disciples  be- 
lieved in  him  as  their  Lord  and  Master,  and  they 
had  assured  him  of  their  loyalty  and  devotion. 
Why,  then,  did  he  demand  of  them  further  allegi- 
ance .''  Why  did  he  impose  upon  them  the  obliga- 
tion of  eating  his  flesh  and  drinking  his  blood,  saying, 
*  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me ' .''  Because  the 
prophet  saw  that  his  people  would  hold  him  up  as 
an  objective  impersonation  of  truth  and  purity,  and 
he  wished  to  prevent  it.  Despite  the  unbounded 
reverence  and  love  which  they  tendered  to  him,. 
he  felt  he  was  only  an  outward  object  of  devoted 
loyalty.  He  preferred  subjective  allegiance,  the 
loyalty  which,  while  it  intellectually  accepted  him^ 
absorbed  him  spiritually  in  the  inner  consciousness. 
Nothing  short  of  internal  absorption  and  assimila- 
tion could  satisfy  Jesus.     And  this  beautiful  idea  he 


176  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

embodied  symbolically  in  the  eucharist.  He  asked 
his  disciples  to  eat  his  flesh  and  drink  his  blood.  In 
other  words,  he  wished  to  be  accepted  by  the  world 
subjectively,  and  not  objectively.  Let  us  be  satis- 
fied that  every  bit  of  flesh  and  every  drop  of  blood 
in  you  and  in  me  is  Christ  before  we  proclaim  our- 
selves his  followers.  Faith  in  Christ  means  life  in 
Christ." 

The  parting  Christ  means  to  confirm  that  at  the 
Last  Supper.  In  eating  the  bread  and  wine  which 
was  Christ's  flesh  and  blood,  the  disciples,  and  all 
disciples,  at  all  times,  received  the  essential  elements 
of  his  character  within  themselves,  digested  them, 
assimilated  them,  grew  upon  them,  and  gained  an 
exalted  vitality  they  did  not  possess  before.  What 
was  the  profoundest  element  of  character  in  the 
parting  Christ .-'  That  inner  spirit  in  him  which  he 
meant,  when  he  said,  "I  and  my  Father  are  one." 
The  features  of  Christ's  character,  so  far  as  one 
may  dare  to  analyze,  were  first  his  faith,  secondly 
his  love,  and  thirdly  his  humble,  self-forgetful,  unre- 
mitting service.  His  faith  included,  in  the  fact  of 
eternal  sonship,  the  whole  world  in  him,  and  the 
Father  in  all.  The  three,  namely,  the  Father,  him- 
self, and  all  mankind,  constitute  together  that  king- 
dom  of  heaven   which  he  came  to  establish.     This 


THE    PARTING    CHRIST  I// 

was  the  very  soul  and  secret  of  his  existence,  the 
bread  of  his  whole  being,  the  word  which  came  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God,  the  cause  for  which  he  came 
to  the  world.  In  offering  the  symbolical  bread,  the 
Master,  before  he  left  his  servants,  committed  unto 
them  the  absolute  secret  of  his  life  and  ministry, 
and  the  future  of  the  cause  of  humanity,  to  estab- 
lish which  both  he  and  they  had  been  preordained, 
and  sent  on  earth.  In  accepting  this  bread,  they 
accepted  that  impersonal  existence  which  meant  the 
annihilation  of  all  individual  interest  and  all  carnal 
craving,  and  a  new  life  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  His 
love  was  the  intense  and  ardent  enthusiasm  of  union 
with  God  and  man,  which  may  be  likened  unto 
strong  new  wine.  It  was  a  holy  intoxication  that 
sent  him  from  suffering  to  suffering,  from  sacrifice 
to  sacrifice,  until  all  was  matured  in  the  consummate 
glory  of  Calvary,  In  offering,  then,  that  mystical 
wine  as  a  farewell  remembrance,  the  departing  Mes- 
siah left  his  ardent  passion  of  humanity  to  those 
who  took  up  his  work,  to  love  as  he  loved,  to  suffer 
as  he  suffered,  to  die  as  he  died.  And,  in  accept- 
ing that  wine,  they  accepted  the  solemn  and  eternal 
vow  to  perpetuate  on  earth  the  kingdom  of  Christ's 
love.  The  bread  and  wine  thus  symbolize  the  in- 
corporation of  Jesus  in  the  flesh  and  blood  of  his 


1 78  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

descendants, —  the  hiding  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the 
everlasting  bosom  of  humanity.  It  was  an  outward 
farewell,  but  inward  union, —  Christ  in  us,  we  in 
Christ,  and  all  in  God.  The  holy  body  of  Christ, 
which  is  to  be  found  nowhere  else  on  earth,  is  thus 
found  buried  in  every  faithful  heart. 

The  Lord's  Supper,  then,  was  an  affectionate  fare- 
well, a  personal  union  between  the  living  and  the 
dead,  and  the  foundation  of  an  everlasting  commu- 
nity. It  was  a  personal  bequest,  a  new  covenant, 
and  a  tender  parting.  It  was  a  sacrament,  a  symbol, 
an  outward  embodiment  of  the  invisible  Christ  in 
the  visible  Church.  The  disciples  and  apostles  were 
each  a  limb,  each  a  vital  part  of  that  corporate 
Church ;  but  Christ's  flesh  and  blood,  his  spirit, 
his  character,  ran  through  all,  enlivening,  combining, 
idealizing  the  whole.  There  is  a  celestial  fitness  in 
the  metaphor  of  the  vine  and  its  branches.  The 
vine  was  sown,  with  its  branches,  in  the  flesh  and 
blood  of  the  Messiah,  on  the  soil  of  the  soul  of  the 
apostolic  Church,  and  the  Husbandman  watered  it 
with  the  dews  of  grace.  The  parting  Christ  per- 
petuated his  whole  life-work  in  the  new  passover 
meal  of  the  Last  Supper.  Truly  may  the  Christian 
Church  be  said  to  be  washed  in  the  blood  of  Jesus, 
and  fed  with  the  substance  of  his  being.     Visible 


THE    PARTING    CHRIST  1/9 

representation  of  the  invisible  could  not  be  fitter,  or 
more  touching.  Nor  could  Christ  more  effectually 
perpetuate  his  ministry  in  those  who  were  to  minis- 
ter to  the  whole  world. 

Where,  then,  is  Christ  .■*  Not  in  fictitious  portraits,, 
not  in  sculptured  forms,  not  in  mythological  heavens. 
Christ  is  in  the  flesh  and  blood  of  every  faithful 
believer.  And  what  is  the  Christian  Church  }  Not 
a  farrago  of  false  theology,  or  mumbling  dogmatism, 
of  routine  worship,  and  saint  worship.  Christ's 
Church  is  the  spiritual  household,  in  which  the 
brothers  have  that  faith,  love,  and  holiness  which 
the  sweet  founder  bequeathed  to  the  world  at  the 
parting  meal  two  thousand  years  ago.  Verily  may 
it  be  said  that  Christ  has  fled  from  the  visible 
Church,  which  is  so  full  of  strife,  contention,  and 
mutual  hatred,  to  that  invisible  Church  where,  sittings 
in  the  heart  of  the  humble  believer,  embosomed  in 
God,  he  calls  you  and  me  to  the  mansions  of  peace.. 

St.  John  narrates  the  washing  of  feet.  It  is  a. 
menial  service  in  the  East :  we  all  know  it  in  India.. 
But  it  symbolizes  the  truest  service,  wherein  all  the- 
enjoyment  belongs  to  him  who  is  served,  and  all  the 
labor  —  labor  without  reward  — to  him  that  serveth. 
Service  crowns  faith  and  love.  Workless  love  and 
faith  arc  a  mockery.     Hence,  Christ  so  repeatedly 


l80  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

emphasizes  the  doing  of  the  commandment.  And 
the  typical  farewell  could  not  be  complete,  unless  it 
included  the  washing  of  the  disciples'  feet,  in  all  the 
important  elements  of  Christ's  character.  Peter  ob- 
jected to  have  his  feet  washed.  He  forgot  that  from 
the  moment  he  had  been  called  away  from  his  fish- 
ing-net, his  feet  had  been  every  day  washed  by  the 
Lord.  At  the  last  moment  he  only  symbolized  in 
an  external  ceremony  his  nameless  occupation  of 
washing  men's  feet.  He  taught  them,  by  physical 
illustration,  to  do  what  he  had  done  all  his  life.  By 
his  baptism  the  whole  world  had  been  bathed  and 
cleansed  ;  and  now,  by  his  washing  men's  feet,  there 
has  been  established  among  mankind  that  ministry 
of  unutterable  service  which  has  sprung  up  like  the 
lily  everywhere  —  wherever  the  name  of  Christ  has 
been  uttered,  and  his  holy  religion  has  set  its  foot. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
THE   DYING   CHRIST. 

TN  death,  as  in  life,  Christ  was  human  nature 
perfected.  If  he  has  taught  us  how  to  hve,  has 
he  not  taught  us  even  more  completely  how  to  die  ? 
Death  is  an  awful  thing.  However  much  we  may 
choose  to  explain  it  away,  we  regard  death  with 
feelings  which  nothing  else  can  excite.  The  strange- 
ness of  the  sense  of  a  sure  existence  in  the  void 
unknown  weighs  upon  the  heart  with  a  supernatural 
pressure.  And  the  utmost  intensity  of  such  feelings 
Jesus  bore  as  none  had  done  before.  Socrates 
uttered  philosophic  self-composure  in  those  immortal 
words:  —  "And  now  it  is  time  to  depart.  For  me 
to  die,  for  you  to  live.  But  which  for  greater  good 
God  only  knows."  Cato  showed  heroic  courage 
and  devotedness.  Seneca  illustrated  indomitable 
stoical  firmness.  But  Christ  alone  presented  on  the 
cross  the  perfection  of  human  nature.  The  unex- 
ampled injustice  of  the  mock  trial  was  consummated 
in  the  cruelty  of  the  crucifixion. 


l82  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

The  first  and  the  chief  attribute  of  the  victim 
•of  this  national  conspiracy  was  his  characteristic 
silence.  To  the  vilest  and  most  deadly  charges,  he 
responded  with  deep,  unbroken  silence,  such  as  ex- 
cited the  wonder  of  the  judge  and  the  spectators. 
To  the  grossest  insults,  the  most  violent  ill-treat- 
ment and  mockery  that  may  well  bring  indignation 
into  the  feeblest  heart,  he  responded  with  voiceless 
uncomplaining  calmness.  Those  who  are  unjustly 
accused,  and  causelessly  ill-treated  only  know  what 
tremendous  strength  is  necessary  to  keep  silence  to 
the  end.  Those  only  who  have  achieved  the  tri- 
umph of  perfect  self-control,  and  put  out  for  ever 
the  fire  of  all  passion  in  the  waters  of  Nirvana, 
those  who  have  partaken  of  the  peace  of  conscious 
justification  in  the  presence  of  an  All-seeing  God, 
know  what  dignity  there  is  in  extreme  silence.  Si- 
lence as  a  virtue,  as  the  attribute  of  holy  saints,  was 
known  in  India  before ;  but  silence,  kept  under  such 
conditions,  as  signalized  the  trial  and  death  of  Christ, 
had  never  been  practised  in  our  country,  or  any- 
where else  in  the  world.  Jesus  has  exalted  this 
lamb-like  virtue  of  silence  to  the  heavenly  crown 
of  sweet  sonship.  Since  then,  we,  too,  who  are  so 
loud  with  our  petty  complaints,  have  learned  to  suffer 
in   silence.     But  it  was  not  a  silence    unbroken  by 


THE    DYING    CHRIST  1 83 

speech.  Only  it  was  a  speech  nobler  than  silence. 
Coming  out  of  the  wicked  judgment  hall  with  a 
simple  affirmation  of  his  spiritual  royalty,  he  but 
once  spoke  on  the  road,  which,  in  remembrance  of 
the  unheard  of  inhumanity  exercised  upon  the  Mes- 
siah, is  to  this  day  called  the  Street  of  Agony. 
And  that  was  to  the  weeping  daughters  of  Jeru- 
salem. His  life-work,  always  carried  on  under  diffi- 
culties, was  converted  into  the  heaviest  burden  of 
pain  which  man  can  bear,  while  he  walked  that 
dark,  tearful,  memorable  walk  to  the  place  of  ex- 
ecution. He  carried  his  own  cross,  and  often 
stumbled  under  it,  and  fainted  with  its  weight. 
Marvellously  does  that  symbolize  the  trial  of  every 
man  who  undertakes  an  unique  and  God-appointed 
life-work.  The  men  were  too  hard-hearted,  or,  if 
the  faint  pulse  of  pity  throbbed  at  all  in  any  waver- 
ing heart,  it  was  hushed  under  the  withering  and 
deadening  influence  of  that  miscreant  mob.  But  the 
women  followed  weeping  aloud.  Genuine  womanly 
sorrow  heeds  neither  fear  nor  control.  Jesus  noticed 
it,  and  addressed  it,  perhaps  unheeded. 

Even  when  he  ascended  the  cross,  amid  the  reel- 
ing, bewildering  agony  of  the  scene,  he  beheld  his 
struggling,  downcast  disciples,  and  the  forlorn, 
weeping  women.     That  was  not  the  time  to  waste 


184  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

words,  nor  was  that  the  time  to  remain  speechless. 
A  heavy  responsibility  weighed  upon  his  heart. 
When  the  living  and  the  dying  are  about  to  part,  it 
often  happens  that  the  living  remain  dumb  and 
helpless;  it  is  the  dying  that  adjust  the  relations  of 
life.  Fathers  provide  for  sons,  husbands  for  wives, 
masters  for  disciples.  Any  failure  here  is  the  failure 
of  a  final  duty.  The  Son  of  Man  had  neither  son, 
nor  wife,  neither  home,  nor  property.  But  he  left 
behind  a  heart-broken  mother  crying  with  the  other 
women  who  had  gathered  from  far  and  near,  and 
he  left  behind  a  fond  disciple  whose  heart  was 
womanly  in  its  tenderness.  He  remembered  both, 
he  saw  both,  and  for  the  moment,  forgetting  every- 
thing else,  did  his  last  duty  by  giving  the  charge  of 
his  poor  parent  to  the  only  one  who  could  be  like 
another  son  to  her. 

Then,  his  dying  vision  enlarged.  Amid  the  shouts 
and  mockeries,  cruelties,  and  unspeakable  wicked- 
ness of  the  scene,  by  his  side  he  saw  nailed  on  an- 
other cross  the  writhing  form  of  a  miserable  male- 
factor, who  looked  upon  him  with  the  last  glance  of 
supplicating  penitence  and  faith.  The  deep,  divine 
sympathy,  which  during  the  labors  of  his  ministry 
carried  him  incessantly  to  the  doors  of  poverty,  pain, 
and  death,  welled  up  in  his  heart  at  this  last  spec- 


THE    DYING    CHRIST  l8S 

tacle  of  suffering.  And  he  poured  out  upon  the 
bruised  spirit  of  that  penitent  thief  the  benign  balm 
of  his  passionate,  forgiving  love.  Oh,  the  sense  of 
divine  fellowship  on  thy  cross  by  the  side  of  the 
dying  Christ !  Thief  as  thou  wert,  his  sympathy 
and  promise  found  for  thee  a  shorter  way  to  para- 
dise than  we,  with  all  our  forms  and  creeds,  find 
to-day.  That  sympathy  was  magical  in  its  power 
of  transforming;  that  promise,  once  heard,  could 
never  more  be  forgotten.  The  hour  of  death  only 
intensified  the  power  of  Christ's  marvellous  love, 
and  he  died  weeping  for  the  thief. 

It  was  a  dread  moment ;  and,  amid  the  palpita- 
tions of  his  sad,  loving  spirit,  the  great  physical 
pain  now  and  then  overwhelmed  him.  Too  artless 
to  disguise  suffering  or  feign  a  mastery  over  bodily 
and  mental  agony,  given  him  as  his  portion  by  the 
hand  of  God,  he  cried,  "  I  thirst."  The  stupefying 
drink  which  they  offered  him  he  refused  —  that 
thirst  was  unquenchable.  Could  oceans  of  tears 
and  carnal  consolation  quench  the  thirst  he  felt  at 
that  fatal  hour.?  The  physical  thirst  was  but  a 
faint  symptom  of  the  parching,  scorching,  immense 
desert  in  the  soul,  which  cried  out  the  next  mo- 
ment, "My  Father,  my  Father,  why  hast  thou  for- 
saken me  } "     That  was  the  fulness  of  agony. 


l86  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

What  bodily  pain  is  not  bearable  when  the  conso- 
lation of  the  Loving  Presence  is  within  the  soul  ? 
And,  when  that  ineffable  consolation  is  withdrawn, 
physical  pain  is  aggravated,  and  the  cry  was  rung 
out  of  the  soul's  desolation.  It  was  death  upon 
death.  "  My  Father,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  .■'  " 
So  cried  Jesus  on  the  cross,  to  give  us  infinite 
encouragement  when,  at  the  critical  times  of  life,  we, 
too,  feel  forsaken.  He  complained  of  the  Father's 
forsaking  to  the  Father  alone.  But  never  was  he 
less  forsaken  than  at  that  awful  moment.  The 
spirit  of  the  Father  was  never  nearer  to  the  Son 
than  it  was  tJien.  Yet  he  was  left  alone  with  the 
calm  majesty  of  his  glorious  trust,  that  our  poor, 
sceptical  solitude  might  be  illumined  by  a  similar 
faith.  The  Son  of  Man  glorified  his  messiahship, 
not  with  a  triumphant  union  with  the  Father  on 
earth,  not  with  a  chorus  of  hallelujahs  from  the 
mouths  of  the  faithful,  neither  with  the  crown  of 
success  on  his  radiant  brow,  nor  with  a  smile  of 
exultation  on  his  dying  lips ;  but  amid  apparent 
failures  and  undeserved  shame,  he  died  with  a  ring- 
ing cry  of  pain  that  darkened  the  triumph  of  his 
enemies  into  a  hastening  doom.  In  contrast  to  that 
agony  is  the  gravity  of  the  offence  of  his  perse- 
cutors.    The  balance  of  divine  justice,  weighing  the 


THE    DYING    CHRIST  I87 

measureless  pain  of  the  dying  Christ  equally  with 
the  guilt  t)f  the  Jews,  is  an  appalling  sight,  the 
thought  of  which  drowned  in  his  heart,  even  at  this 
moment,  all  sense  of  personal  injury.  Suffering 
melted  into  commiseration,  death  melted  into  for- 
giveness ;  and,  a  suppliant  for  mercy  on  behalf  of 
those  very  men  who  put  him  to  death,  he  said, 
"  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  Can  ideal  forgiveness  go  any  further .''  His 
mother  provided  for,  the  sufferer  by  his  side  con- 
soled, his  bodily  pain  fully  endured,  his  sense  of 
desertion  expressed,  to  give  us  the  assurance  that 
God  is  never  nearer  to  us  than  when  we  imagine  he 
is  far  away,  his  enemies  heartily  forgiven,  there  came 
the  time  for  the  dying  Christ  to  commend  his  spirit 
into  the  hands  of  the  Father.  Let  the  Father  who 
dwelleth  in  every  heart,  declare  with  what  response 
he  embraced  the  glorious  spirit  of  the  dying  Son. 
The  heavens  were  darkened,  the  earth  shook,  all 
nature  was  hushed,  as  spirit  passed  away  into  Spirit. 
The  figure  on  the  cross  cried,  "It  is  finished,  and 
he  bowed  his  head,  and  gave  up  the  ghost." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE    REIGNING   CHRIST. 

TN  losing  Jesus,  as  they  imagined  they  never 
would,  the  bewildered  disciples  lost  everything. 
Every  tie  that  bound  them  to  a  mad,  hostile,  heathen 
world  seemed  suddenly  broken,  every  hope  lost. 
Alive  till  but  yesterday,  with  the  fulness,  vividness, 
pathos,  and  glory  of  his  heavenly  life  around  him, 
eating,  drinking,  watching,  weeping  before  them, 
every  scene  breathing  the  fragrance  of  his  gentle 
figure,  the  whole  atmosphere  ringing  with  the  echo 
of  his  song  and  precept  —  so  alive  yesterday,  where 
was  the  Master  now  ?  The  women  sobbed  as  they 
prepared  the  spices  to  embalm  his  body,  the  men  sat 
in  dumb  misery  before  each  other,  stricken  and  help- 
less. Slowly,  as  the  watches  of  the  black  dismal 
night  passed  by,  his  parting  sentiments,  one  by  one, 
recurred  to  their  dull,  downcast  faculties.  Jesus  had 
indeed  foretold  his  death,  but  he  had  also  foretold 
his  resurrection.  He  had,  before  them  all,  sung  on 
the  night  prior  to  his  death,  on  the  very  scene  of 


THE    REIGNING    CHRIST  1 89 

the  Last  Supper,  the  great  national  dirge  which 
opens  with  words  of  sublime  mourning ;  but  he  also 
sang  with  pealing  response  the  words  :  "  I  shall  not 
die,  but  live,  and  declare  the  works  of  the  Lord. 
The  Lord  hath  chastened  and  corrected  me,  but  he 
hath  not  given  me  over  to  death.  Thou  art  my 
God,  and  I  will  thank  thee.  Thou  art  my  God,  and 
I  will  praise  thee."  A  quiver  of  unearthly  confi- 
dence thrilled  through  the  frames  of  those  lonely 
men  and  women,  as,  amid  their  heart-broken  deser- 
tion, the  sudden  hope  shot  into  their  minds  that 
Jesus  might  rise  from  the  grave.  Repeatedly  had  he 
said  this,  taught  it,  hoped,  prayed,  and  sung  about  it. 
To  their  untutored  imagination,  such  a  hope  could 
have  but  one  meaning  ;  but  the  hope  was  there. 
They  scarcely  dared  to  breathe  it  to  themselves  ; 
and  it  rose  and  sank  in  fear,  rose  and  sank  again, 
leaving  them  in  dubious  despair,  and  anxious  misery. 
In  this  state  of  mind,  before  the  dawn  had  broken 
on  the  dismal  sky,  the  women  had  left  —  headed  by 
that  fiery  spirit,  Mary  of  Magdala  —  for  the  garden 
of  Joseph  where  the  body  of  Christ  lay  buried. 
The  strange  thoughts,  fears,  and  wishes, —  above  all, 
the  overpowering  sorrow  that  worked  in  them  in 
that  dark,  ghostly  twilight,  in  that  deserted,  solitary 
walk, — must  have  made  them  oblivious  of  everything 


190  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

until  they  reached  the  garden, —  nay,  perhaps  the  very 
brink  of  the  grave  itself.  When,  behold  their  aston- 
ishment at  finding  that  the  ponderous  stone  which 
covered  the  mouth  of  the  grave  had  been  rolled 
away,  and  the  entrance  to  the  sepulchre  lay  open. 
How,  when,  by  whom  this  was  done  they  could  not 
imagine  ;  but  latent  anticipations  about  the  rise  of 
the  Master  caused  a  fearful  palpitation  of  their  sur- 
charged hearts.  The  simplicity  and  supernatural- 
ness  of  their  notions  began  to  run  through  them 
in  cold  tremor,  when,  lo !  in  walking  into  the  grave, 
they  were  amazed  by  the  discovery  that  the  body 
of  the  blessed  Messiah  was  not  there.  The  grave- 
clothes  were  left  in  the  empty  darkness,  the  napkin 
lay  folded  on  the  ground,  everything  else  was  as  they 
had  arranged  it  when  they  affectionately  put  the 
corpse  in  its  last  repose.  But  the  body  of  the  Lord 
had  departed.  Whither  ?  Their  trembling  hopes, 
their  anxious  thoughts,  their  trusting  hearts,  had 
anticipated  the  answer.  They  stood  transfigured, 
they  had  scarcely  the  power  of  speech  or  thought 
left  in  them.  In  that  supernatural  twilight,  they 
saw  angel  apparitions.  Corroborative  voices  seemed 
to  reverberate  their  swelling  faith.  And  they  ran  to 
inform  the  apostles  that  Christ  is  risen. 

"Christ    is    risen!"     What    infinite,    inarticulate 


THE    REIGNING   CHRIST  I9I 

gospel  in  the  three  words !  What  faith,  expect- 
ancy, consolation,  and  strength  to  those  forlorn 
men  and  women,  and  to  millions  after  them ! 
The  report  spread  like  sunlight,  and  through  the 
silent  darkness  of  the  centuries  reaches  us  at  the 
present  day.  Why  rudely  raise  the  veil  from  the 
face  of  that  sweet,  simple,  sacred  trust  which 
soothed  the  bosoms  of  those  stricken  children  of 
God  in  their  inconsolable  grief  ?  Why  expose  the 
tender  and  holy  confidence  of  millions  in  every  age, 
who  on  their  ideas  of  Christ's  resurrection  have 
anchored  the  dear  hope,  and  trust  of  a  glorious 
eternity  ?  If  Jesus  has  risen  to  them,  much  more 
hath  he  risen  to  us.  "  Flesh  and  blood,"  says 
Paul,  "cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
But  doth  not  the  spirit  rise  to  the  Spirit.?  Flesh 
and  blood  are  not  more  real  than  the  spirit.  It 
is  the  incorruptible  that  putteth  on  incorruptibility. 
The  spirit  of  Jesus  hath  risen,  and  reigneth. 

Christ  reigns.  As  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  heav- 
enly life,  he  reigns  in  the  bosom  of  every  believer. 
He  reigns  in  some  as  the  spirit  of  trustful,  speech- 
less suffering,  in  others  as  the  endless  struggle  and 
devotion  to  a  life-work  that  seems  far  from  comple- 
tion. Christ  reigns  in  some  as  the  spirit  of  agony 
for  others'  sins.    He  sits  as  a  crown  of  thorns  on  the 


192  THE    ORIENTAL    CHRIST 

brow  of  those  who  have  sold  themselves  at  the  altar 
of  brotherly  love.  In  others,  he  reigns  as  the  hard- 
won  spirit  of  forgiveness  for  injuries  that  have 
sapped  the  foundation  of  life,  injuries  that  are  given 
as  the  reward  of  life -long  goodness  and  service,  that 
bring  death  where  life  should  be.  As  the  calm 
spirit  of  trust  that  reposes  itself  in  all-sufficing  Prov- 
idence, that  labors  hard  to-day  and  thinks  not  of  the 
provisions  of  the  morrow,  as  consecrated  poverty 
that  is  sure  of  its  daily  bread,  Christ  reigns  in  us. 
Christ  reigns  as  the  recognizer  of  divine  humanity 
in  the  fallen,  the  low,  and  despicable,  as  the  healer 
of  the  unhappy,  unclean,  and  the  sore  diseased. 
Reigns  he  not  in  the  sweet  humanity  that  goes  forth 
to  seek  and  save  its  kin  in  every  land  and  clime,  to 
teach  and  preach,  and  raise  and  reclaim,  to  weep  and 
watch,  and  give  repose  ?  Christ  reigns  as  matchless 
strength  in  the  character  that  scorns  vileness  and 
seduction,  lust  and  worldliness,  and  the  power  of 
evil  in  men  and  women  put  together.  He  reigns  as 
sweet  patience  and  sober  reason  amid  the  laws  and 
orders  of  the  world,  as  the  spirit  of  submission  and 
loyalty  he  reigns  in  peace  in  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world.  As  the  secret  of  ceaseless  prayer,  as  the  real- 
ized result  of  fervid  devotions,  Christ  holds  his  sway 
in  those  who  pray  to  God  in  his  spirit.     As  tender 


THE    REIGNING    CHRIST  I93 

sympathy  with  every  weakness  and  unrest,  every 
poverty,  suffering,  and  unheeded  complaint,  Christ 
reigns  in  his  disciples.  He  reigns  as  an  approving 
smile  in  our  sympathy  with  every  good  and  right- 
eous cause,  and  in  the  ready  tear  for  unremedied 
and  unaccountable  pain.  Reigns  he  not  in  every 
minister  as  the  vow  of  service  unto  death, —  as 
painstaking,  self-denying  anxiety  for  others'  good,  as 
all-surrendering  labor  in  the  household  of  God  ? 
Christ  reigns  in  the  individual  who  feebly  watches 
his  footprints  in  the  tangled  mazes  of  life.  He 
reigns  in  the  community  that  is  bound  together  in 
his  name.  As  divine  humanity,  and  the  Son  of  God, 
he  reigns  gloriously  around  us  in  the  New  Dispen- 
sation. 


fr 


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